Salford Red Devils coach claims “victim mentality” at fault for “pathetic” Hull KR hammering

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley has hit out at his team’s performance after they lost 42-0 to Hull KR in a hapless performance.

In one of the most ill-disciplined performances in recent memory, the Red Devils gave up countless penalties and allowed Hull KR to have full control without particularly doing anything special.

A sin bin for Jayden Nikorima after a high shot on Niall Evalds after just 90 seconds possibly set the tone and in turn Salford found themselves 16-0 down inside 14 minutes with Hull KR making the most of the opportunities handed to them.

Further injury issues, adding to the absence of stars Mikey Lewis and Tyrone May, hit Hull KR as Rhyse Martin left the field but they continued to benefit from Salford’s ill-discipline with the Robins running in four tries in the second half to make it a resounding 42-0 win and head to three wins from three for the first time in Super League history.

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley spoke to Sky Sports after the game and pulled no punches in his assessment with the performance labelled “awful”, defence branded “pathetic”, and the player’s accused of having a “victim mentality”.

“It was awful, you can’t dress that up,” Rowley said when first asked about the game, noting: “We’re two weeks in, but three in reality and we’re already in the trenches so to speak.”

Salford Red Devils coach claims “victim mentality” at fault for “pathetic” Hull KR hammering

Full-time. pic.twitter.com/RRCw66oVCl

— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) February 27, 2025

Rowley’s brutal assessment continued as he warned of a ‘long season’ if issues are not addressed soon, although he did note the off-season financial troubles as having weighed heavy on the players.

He said: “It was an awful performance and there was a big what can only be described as a victim mentality from us as a team there. I’ll stand with everyone of them but we’re really disappointed with ourselves as a group, and that includes me, so we’ve got a lot of fixing up to do otherwise it’s going to be a long season.”

On that off-season hangover, Rowley stated: “Possibly a noose around our neck on that one, it’s something that did weigh heavy on us but like I said before this game doesn’t feel sorry for you and it doesn’t wait for you. We’ve got to shake that one off pretty quick otherwise it becomes hard to get out of the trenches.

“You’ve got to start by defending tough and bending your back and I thought we were pathetic in that area today. I don’t even want to talk about offence, it was ugly, but it starts with D as everybody says. Defence is an attitude and we’ve got a bit to fix up.”

Having joined the club in 2022, Rowley claimed that it might be the worst performance yet under his tenure when asked about that by former St Helens man Kyle Amor.

Rowley responded: “Probably yeah. I’d have to search hard to find one that matched up with that . I’m concerned about defence but we’ll stand together.

“We’ll be very honest in the dressing rooms. There was a lot of people looking for answers out there and they weren’t finding them but the first place you should look is yourself and we’ll do that this week.”

With the new takeover completed, it was hoped that Salford could kick on this week but Rowley underlined that it’s  along process and the after-effects of the off-season are still a distraction.

He said: “Absolutely but it’s like moving into a new house, you’re still trying to find the path and what it looks like. They’re distractions if you like but they’re real and we can’t be remiss of those distractions and pretend they’ve not been there a long time but our job and what we’re paid to do is play and coach rugby and we’ve got to be better.”