Jon Wilkin has warning for Salford as he slams their defence

Last night Salford Red Devils were beaten by a Hull KR team missing some key players as the Robins laid down a real marker to start the season with two consecutive wins for the first time in 16 years.

However, Salford perhaps should have had the game won by halftime but only led 4-0 at the break.

In the second half, Hull KR went on to win 24-10 and it is safe to say those on Sky Sports weren’t impressed with Jamie Jones-Buchanan said: “Salford just melted under the pressure.

“They are going to have to be way more clinical. I thought they were sloppy.

“King Vuniyayawa with a few knock ons at the play the ball and some fumbles and Marc Sneyd with wrong pass selection.”

In the eyes of Jon Wilkin it was a balance between Salford being poor and Hull KR stepping up:

“Salford weren’t great here tonight. Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Sam Luckley were massive especially Luckley against his former side.

“There were plenty of others who were very good as well who will get talked about.”

However, he did say that Salford’s performance was well below the standards they set for themselves:

“Their lack of points came back to bite them as did their errors and the penalties they conceded. They gave Hull KR some energy but Salford looked tidy with the ball.

“What Paul Rowley will be disappointed with is that second half performance. That was well below the standards they set last year.”

Meanwhile, Wilkin also identified Deon Cross’ style of defence as being a weakness for the Reds and had a warning for them:

“This is the bad side of his game. He is too aggressive. We pulled him apart in the first half and said if he was too aggressive he would be exposed. He’s ball watching, both him and Brodie Croft are just off task for that try.

“If you’re going to attack well, you have to defend well. It is too predictably aggressive on their right edge and teams will pull them apart, pull them to bits.”

On the flip side of things, Brian Carney was very impressed by how Hull KR backed up their win over Wigan:

“You can start the season with an entertaining win over Wigan but the real test is when you get on a bus on a Thursday night and play away and they showed great resilience tonight.”

“They were clinging on at halftime, they stayed in at 4-0 down.”