Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley spoke after the club’s 23-10 win over Huddersfield Giants, their first Super League win of the season.
Both sides were chasing their first victory in Super League but it was the Red Devils who earned the two points and they did so with relative ease as they put in a polished performance, in spite of their ongoing troubles.
Jayden Nikorima pulled the strings whilst young forward Harvey Wilson combined with Chris Hill to dominate the Giants who did score two late tries but were largely noncompetitive.
Giants’ head coach Luke Robinson had called it their “worst performance of the season” when speaking to Sky Sports, whereas Rowley seemed to suggest that it felt like the first proper week of the season when he spoke with the broadcasters.
“Well, it’s been a good week,” he said after the win.
“It’s felt like the first week where we’ve practised rugby in a little bit of detail, which is really important.
“I thought you saw that out there, we looked a lot more connected. I thought our middles played really well, I thought they worked together brilliantly and then we showed some of our DNA a little bit there on edges, some stardust in particular from Jayden.”
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An important home victory for the Reds! 👹
🤝 @GordianBuilding & @hselec_ pic.twitter.com/IzOcn0iILS
— Salford Red Devils 👹 (@SalfordDevils) March 20, 2025
If Nikorima, who scored two tries and earned the Man of the Match medal, can string some of those performances together then fans will quickly forget about the brilliance of Marc Sneyd but the former Catalans man was partnered by the swiss army knife that is Chris Atkin.
On Atkin, Rowley raverd: “Chris has done what Chris has done at this club for a few years now, he just gets on with his job, you could call him a quiet achiever, but don’t let that take away from the quality that he brings to the side and the bravery as well.
“He defended tough, which was a good foundation for his game, and on the other side of that through that defence he translated that into some really tough offence as well and took the line on, as did Jayden.
“I thought they were both great and Ryan Brierley as well, our spine was good. Ryan was very poorly before the game so he’s a better man than me, I couldn’t have played the way he looked just before kick-off.”
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Having finally got a win on the board and now having a two-day rest advantage heading into their Round Six game against Wigan Warriors, Rowley was asked if the club have turned a corner, something he agreed with somewhat.
The head coach admitted: “I’m a glass-half-full, so I just work there today and like I say all the time, we just rock up and train and prepare for a game. So, this was the most normal week of pre-season, if you like, even though we’re into the season.
“This is the most normal week that we’ve had for quite some time and it was good to get a game at the end. The performance, win or lose, was relevant, but the performance was more important, and the performance obviously translated into a good win.”
One negative was that both Chris Hill and Deon Cross left for HIAs with one of those failing according to Rowley, although it was unclear which player, meaning the Red Devils will have just 17 players next week.
