Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DEVILS’ DELIGHT
Evalds sinks his teeth into Wolfpack
NIALL EVALDS swooped with two lethal late body blows to knock the stuffing out of Toronto.
The Wolfpack – with Sonny Bill Williams again largely underwhelming – hauled themselves level with 10 minutes to go.
But full-back Evalds put the Red Devils back in control when he sent in Dan Sarginson for an unconverted try.
Then, with three minutes left, he snuck in past some sloppy Wolfpack defence to put the result beyond doubt.
Wolfpack centre Hakim Miloudi, who had been moved to full back, said: “I put my hand up and said sorry. It’s my mistake. I thought the ball was going out and was waiting but he came in and scored.”
Evalds’ late strike sealed the Grand Finalists’ first win of the season, after their thrashing by St Helens last week, and leaves Toronto still looking for their first Super League victory.
Wolfpack boss Brian McDermott dodged the post-match press conference but relieved Salford coach Ian Watson said: “It got a bit nervy towards the end.
“It was a must-win game for us and it was a really good win. Toronto are playing with confidence and they are a team that is reasonably settled.
“They throw the ball about and challenge you a hell of a lot.”
Dual-code superstar Williams started for Toronto, after coming off the bench in last week’s defeat by Castleford, and was certainly better than on his debut.
The Kiwi will miss Toronto’s next game against Wigan on Thursday because he flies home tomorrow to be at the birth of his fourth child.
Toronto drew first blood, Gary Wheeler racing over after coming on as an 18th-minute substitute for injured Joe Mellor.
Salford stand-off Tui Lolohea set up the first home try for half-back partner Kev Brown and added the conversion to nudge them into a 6-4 lead. That scoreline remained until Salford struck twice early in the second half.
Wheeler had been moved to fullback, with Blake Wallace going into the halves, but the former St Helens and Warrington man was exposed for both Lolohea and Rhys Williams’ tries.
Miloudi replaced him and made some amends with his second try in the 54th minute.
Evalds denied Ricky Leutele another touchdown but there was no stopping Brad Singleton as he powered over, with Wallace converting to level.
The sniff of their first blood in the top flight was soon wiped out though by Salford’s grandstand two-try finish.