Paul Rowley explains why Salford Red Devils lost to Hull KR

Today we have seen Leeds Rhinos dumped out of the play off picture and Hull KR secure their spot in the top six for this year.

This leaves Warrington Wolves and Salford Red Devils set to battle it out for the final spot in the play offs.

Ahead of this and after their defeat to Hull KR, Salford boss Paul Rowley addressed the situation.

He said on Sky Sports: “I don’t think we were as polished as we could be, we had enough opportunities in the first half there and we played through our plus ones quite a bit rather than going through the middle which would have kept them accountable and preserved some space.

“I have no complaints with our efforts, I am really proud.

“We forced a lot of errors, we were aggressive so we came to play. We didn’t sit back it was a good game of rugby.

“Our intent in defence was pleasing. With the adversity we’ve been through, I am very proud.

“We’ll build again, hopefully we have some white blood sells kicking in and a bit more energy against potentially the best side in the league but we expect the fans to get behind us.”

This felt like a play off game itself as Hull KR and Salford Red Devils met in front of a sell out crowd as Hull KR had the chance to secure their play off spot whilst Salford knew that a defeat would leave them in a perilous position going into next week and the battle with Warrington Wolves for a play off spot.

Thus, there was a huge amount of pressure on both teams which led to a bombed try as Hull KR carved through the Red Devils with Shaun Kenny-Dowall teeing up Brad Schneider up for a certain try but he dropped the ball.

After a number of errors in their own half, the Robins defended well and eventually broke again with Schneider making amends to set up James Batchelor.

KR then had a try disallowed for a SKD knock on after a kick with Matt Parcell hoping to capitalise.

There was a brilliant tackle from Ryan Brierly to deny a breaking Mikey Lewis who showed amazing foot work to carve open the Red Devils.

The Robins went into the second half 6-0 ahead and looked very close to scoring when Matt Parcell darted towards the line but a desperate tackle from Brodie Croft saw the ball dislodged.

They did then take the two after earning a penalty for a high tackle on Mikey Lewis who had his finger prints all over the game and at 8-0 he had a chance to seal the win taking an offload from Kane Linnett and diving for the corner but was again denied by Ryan Brierley.

But the Robins would secure their play off spot with a lovely move putting Ryan Hall in at the corner.