Watson hits out at referee after Salford fall to Leeds’ fightback

Salford coach Ian Watson could face a fine after he accused referee Marcus Griffiths of “ruining” the game as Leeds overturned an 8-0 deficit to win 22-8 at the AJ Bell Stadium.

In a scathing attack on the match officials and also head of officials Steve Ganson, Watson accused Griffiths of “washing his hands of Salford” because the home fans turned against him.

Watson highlighted an incident in the second half when Salford full-back Niall Evalds appeared to be tackled in the air taking a high kick.

No penalty was given and he felt it was the catalyst for several big calls to go against his team. “There are things

that happened in that second half that are way beyond our control,” Watson said. “Ten times out of 10 if that tackle on Evalds was on Sky, that’s a penalty. I’d like Ganson to explain that to me and contact us – he needs to come back to me.

“In this game, things are getting tighter and tighter – we’re talking about people’s livelihoods. People who are in charge of the games have got to be doing it the right way and I felt the game was ruined.

“As soon as the crowd went berserk at the referee, he just washed his hands of Salford and refereed the game in a totally different manner.

“Ganson needs to get in touch with me and tell me why he’s putting people

in charge of a game who can’t control the game. I contacted him a few times last year and he never got back to me. We’re not Wigan or St Helens so we’re not important enough to deal with.”

Of his team’s performance, Watson said: “I thought our effort was outstanding. We played well in the first half but clocked off for one part of it.”

Salford have won just once this season and led 8-0 through unconverted tries from Evalds and Tui Lolohea. But Leeds scored 22 unanswered points, with tries either side of half-time, from Luke Gale and Luke Briscoe, turning the game in Leeds’s favour.

Their fortunes improved further in the second half as they ground Salford down in worsening conditions and further

tries from Mikolaj Oledzki and Jack Walker confirmed victory.

Leeds coach Richard Agar was happy to be taking the two points back to West Yorkshire and was impressed with the character shown by his team.

He said: “It was a game of two halves for us. We were really scrappy and poor in the first half, but the try just before half-time was a big moment for us.

“Sometimes you just have to adapt your style of football to the conditions and we got it better in the second half.

“We had a lot more energy in our tanks in that second half and our execution was a bit more clinical.

“It wasn’t real pretty, but sometimes you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and scrap for a win.”

Ollie’s four tries but our early defensive effort in repelling them set our standard for the game.

“We could have kicked a couple of penalties but we back our players, who are making the on-field calls. We have never been concerned about what was happening to Saracens, it’s always been about what we are doing. We just have to keep improving and the boys are being constantly challenged to increase their efforts.”

Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann accepted his side did not deserve to win, saying: “At present we can’t produce an 80-minute performance and we have a lot of work to do.

“We gave them 12 points on a plate with Charlie Chapman, on his Premiership debut, getting in the wrong position to defend for the first and then Billy’s [Twelvetrees] pass gives them a try on a plate.”

Ruaridh McConnochie scored two tries for as they saw off

19-12 to claim their third league win in a row. They were given a scare though, with Quins having snatched the lead through a spectacular try by Marcus Smith when the hosts lost focus.

Rhys Priestland was involved twice in a counter attack before releasing McConnochie on the left touchline. The England World Cup squad member had opened the scoring with a clever move off the top of a line-out early in the first half.

The visitors’ other try had come from number eight Alex Dombrandt when he charged down a Priestland clearance.