Leeds Rhinos scrum-half Matt Frawley played on after receiving eight stitches in his hand on Saturday at Salford Red Devils. The Rhinos claimed their first win of the new Super League season as they beat Paul Rowley’s side 32-6.
Leeds had to come from behind, but they scored six tries at the Salford Community Stadium to claim the victory after falling behind early on. However, the win came at a price for Brad Arthur’s men with Brodie Croft and Cameron Smith picking up injuries during the game.
Croft spent 12 minutes on the turf receiving treatment for a head knock before leaving the fray while Smith damaged his ankle, with Arthur outlining the latter’s injury could be a bad one after the game.
Frawley also sustained an injury in the game, with the half-back slicing his hand open on a Salford boot. He left for the field for treatment before Croft’s injury, but he re-emerged with the wound stitched up to help steer Leeds to victory in Greater Manchester.
“It’s part of it,” the Australian told Leeds Rhinos’ official channels after the game. “I think it had a bit of numbing so I didn’t really feel too much to be honest. Hopefully I’m right for next week.”
On his half-back partner’s injury, Frawley added: “It was a scary one, it was such a long stoppage and I think the medical team did a great job with him, just taking all the precautions but he’s in pretty good spirits in there at the moment. That was part of the reason, we talked about it at half-time, play for him.”
Croft’s setback didn’t seem to make too much of impact on the field with Jake Connor stepping up to take control of the contest and help see the Yorkshire outfit over the line.
“We dug deep,” Frawley added. “We had a few injuries there with Crofty going off and I was off for a little bit. I think it was a big team effort and we talked about wanting to kickstart our year today and I think we did that.
“It was a big team effort, you can single out a lot of players but I think everyone just did their job for the most part today. I think Gannon did a really good job in a position he hasn’t played a lot of footy in and Jake taking control of that right edge. It was a good team performance and we’re good to go again next week.
“We’ve got a bit of a longer turnaround and we’ll learn some things from what we did today, some good things and some things we can work on.”
