GALE FORCE

Luke’s on the charge as Rhinos power past Salford

Salford Red Devils 8 Leeds Rhinos 22

LUKE GALE calmed the storm that was threatening to derail the Rhinos and then came up with his own unstoppable blast.

He raced in for a try on the stroke of half time to cut the lead to two and leave Salford wondering how it was so close.

The scrum half then controlled the second half, helping mastermind three unanswered tries and converting two of them.

Leeds’ second win from three lifts them up to fourth, level on points with champions St Helens.

Coach Rich Agar said: “It was not pretty but sometimes you have to roll your sleeves up and scrap.

“It was big for us to jag a try on half time. It was critical because I thought it was going to be a tough half-time talk, but at 8-6 when you’ve not played well you get a spring in your step.

“We were a little better in the second half, more controlled, made fewer errors and took our chances which is really pleasing.”

Salford, who had previously beaten Toronto but lost to Saints and Huddersfield, went hunting a badly needed win in style.

Blame

They made the Rhinos pay for an error-strewn opening half-hour with two unconverted tries from Niall Evalds and former Rhino Tui Lolohea. Gale was partly to blame for both touchdowns, dropping off a tackle on Evalds and then getting handed off with ease by Lolohea.

But he made up for his errors when he supported a break by hooker Brad Dwyer to touch down, adding his own conversion.

Salford attempted a quick response after the break and substitute hooker Joey Lussick was held up over the line. But the tide truly turned after Gale and Richie Myler forced a goalline drop out, even though Evalds looked to be in the air when he was tackled.

Leeds scored through Luke Briscoe as a result and Leeds then went for the throat with further tries from Mikolaj Oledski and Jack Walker.

Salford started to feel sorry for themselves, moaning at a string of decisions from referee Marcus Griffiths, but coach Ian Watson felt they were justified.

He moaned: “It was ruined, not by Leeds or Salford but in a different way. You get fines for speaking out but you should be able to give your opinion.

Control

“Things happened in that second half that were way beyond our control. Niall was 100 per cent in the air when Gale hit his shoulder and drove him over the line.

“You give that to any referee, when it’s on Sky, and 10 times out of 10 they say he is tackled in the air.”

Watson said he wants head of referees Steve Ganson to explain why they were given a “referee who cannot control the game”. He added: “When there’s relegation and livelihoods on the line you’ve got to have people in charge who are doing it the right way.”

Tries: Evalds, Lolohea. Tries: Gale, L Briscoe,

Oledzki, Walker. Goals: Gale 3.