Fringe players in fight to catch Watson’s eye
SALFORD are enjoying a warmweather camp in Spain following success in their second pre-season friendly at the weekend.
The Red Devils made it two wins out of two with a warm-up victory over Leigh Centurions at the AJ Bell Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.
At the same time, young academy stars Luis Roberts and Connor Aspey were featuring in Valencia Huracanes’ historic first match against Featherstone Rovers – and young hooker
Aspey even crossed for a try in the clash.
And the rest of the Salford squad have now flown out to the east coast of Spain to get some valuable training work done in far more favourable weather conditions than back home.
The camp represents a further opportunity for those who may be on the fringes of the Red Devils squad to put forward their case for a starting berth in the opening Betfred Super League fixture against St Helens on January 31.
One player who has impressed in the two pre-season friendlies to date has been Rhys Williams, with the Wales international winger earning particular praise from his coach.
“I thought he was outstanding [against Leigh],” said Ian Watson.
“At the moment, he’s playing himself into a starting position. He just needs to keep building on that.
“That’s the beauty of pre-season you might have an idea of your 17 or your team, but people always push themselves forward.”
Watson has also been encouraged by the performances of his forward pack, despite the fact skipper Lee Mossop has yet to feature in pre-season so far.
Pauli Pauli got his first minutes of action against the Centurions, while Seb Ikahihifo, Luke Yates and Jack Ormondroyd have all seemingly hit the ground running as Red Devils - something Watson expects to benefit firstchoice hooker Joey Lussick.
“Joey is going to get a lot of success on the back of Pauli and Seb and people like that this year,” said the Salford boss.
“It’s important he’s in the right condition to be able to take advantage of that.
“He’s a smart nine anyway, so him playing on the back of players like that will make him even better than what he was last year.
“And he’s really stood up in the leadership this year. Last year, we had Jackson [Hastings] and he kind of spoke for everybody Jacko, but we needed a few more talkers.
“Joey’s kind of stepped into that and is talking really well at the moment.
“His development is probably coming on a little bit better, maybe through having that bit more of a role in the leadership team.
“Jacko was a very strong personality, in terms of his voice. What we need to do is make sure we’re all on the same page.
“We can’t try and add levels onto players, they just need to make sure they’re doing their job for the team first.”