Marshall: We have to show we can fight with Saints
IT’S been a long wait for players and fans alike, but the 2021 Super League season finally kicks off this evening, with Salford taking on back-to-back champions St Helens.
As well as being a repeat of the 2019 Grand Final – and round one last year – there’s the added intrigue of it being Richard Marshall’s first match as Red Devils coach.
He was an assistant to both Justin Holbrook and Kristian Woolf as Saints tasted success over the last two years and it’s something that he hopes to bring with him to the AJ Bell Stadium.
“I’ve got a great deal of respect and admiration for that club and we want to emulate a team like St Helens,” said Marshall.
“There’s a lot that’s good about that club, but like any organisation, there’s a couple of things we’re looking at on the field.
“There’s not many weaknesses within that team, they’re world-class and I’m sure the squad that Kristian has put together will be equally as good, if not better.
“For us, this is a new team. We’ll probably have six or seven players making their debut and it will take time for us to gel as a team and learn each others’ nuances.
“But at the same time, we just want to throw them out there and go against the best team in
FOR OPENER the country, which St Helens are.”
It’s a view shared by club captain Lee Mossop, who is keen to avoid a repeat of the club’s opening day defeat to Woolf’s side last year.
“I don’t want to embarrass myself like I did last year,” joked Mossop. “We got them off the back of the Grand Final and I can remember saying ‘we want to test ourselves, we feel like we’ve improved’ and we got a hiding first round!
“But [Saints] are the standard, they’re where every team is trying to get to. I’d rather play them round one than round six, I want to see where we’re at.
“We feel like we’ve had a really good pre-season, but there’s no better test than playing Saints, they’re the top dogs.”
Mossop has led his side out at Old Trafford and Wembley in the last two seasons and although both matches ended in defeat, the former Wigan man thinks this year’s squad have enough about them to go one step further.
“I don’t want to discredit the squads we’ve had over the last couple of years,” said Mossop. “But If I’m being really honest, I think this is the best squad we’ve had.
“You look at our outside backs and there’s some pretty impressive players that are going to miss out this week just because of the amount of competition.”
In the absence of Andy Ackers, there is no specialist hooker in Salford’s 21-man squad for the clash with St Helens, though Danny Addy, Elijah Taylor and Declan Patton all have experience at dummy half.
Matty Costello could make his debut for the club having joined from tonight’s opposition in the off-season.
■ ST HELENS: Coote, Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace, Lomax, Fages, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Thompson, Bentley, Mata’utia, McCarthyScarsbrook, Amor, Paasi, Welsby, Smith, Batchelor, Dodd, Simm.
■ SALFORD: Escare, Sio, Watkins, Inu, Lolohea, Brown, Mossop, Ikahihifo, Lannon, Pauli, Taylor, Addy, Johnson, Kear, Livett, Williams, Sarginson, Costello, Ormondroyd, Wells, Patton.