Watson in plea for new faces

SALFORD coach Ian Watson admitted his squad needs fresh blood after Catalans threw the relegation scramble wide open.

Victory for the Red Devils would have put them six points clear of the Dragons.

But instead they have been dragged back towards the bottom four and Watson knows changes need to be made.

He said: “It’s a bad result for us.

“The club is in a situation where it doesn’t have a flood of money.

“We could go and get a couple of guys from the Championship but would they be Super League standard?

“We need players who can handle playing at an intense level week-in, week-out.

“You can’t compete with a squad of 20, 21 players in this league.

“Some players are standing up and some players are not and it’s up to us to filter them out.”

Watson’s side were still in the game when they trailed 10-6 at half-time, having opened the scoring through Weller Hauraki.

Catalans tries to Ben Garcia and Julien Bousquet gave them the initiative, and a secondhalf hat-trick from Jodie Broughton ensured George Griffin’s late response was scant consolation for the Red Devils.

Dragons coach Steve McNamara said: “The result really mattered for us. I was a bit worried in the first 10 minutes – we came out really slow and Salford got us.

“But the response to that was very positive from the group.

“We’re building steady and strongly some foundations for the club – we want to compete at the top end.”