Salford Red Devils’ Paul Rowley on late decisions, the RFL rule book and round two selection

Paul Rowley admits he isn’t confident that he will be able to name his full Salford Red Devils squad next week, either. With Salford waiting for the RFL to ratify and confirm their takeover, the Red Devils are still working under a sustainability cap of £1.2 million.

As such, Rowley was forced to name a weakened side for their round one fixture with St Helens. However, the head coach selected just three senior players in the squad, with his starting XIII being made up entirely of reserves and academy players.

Salford were duly beaten 82-0 as they went up against the might of a full strength St Helens unit, who ran in 15 tries to record the most one-sided scoreline in Super League history. Both Salford and the RFL have come under heaps of criticism as a result, with the match being showcased to a national audience on BBC Two.

Rowley outlined the reasons behind his selection ahead of kick-off at the Totally Wicked Stadium, but speaking after the loss, he opened up a little more on the circumstances surrounding the selection before attempting to look ahead to next week’s home clash with Leeds Rhinos.

“No, I don’t know the answer,” Rowley said when asked whether he expected to have things in place before next week’s game. “There’s a lot of detail and there’s complexities and details that I’m not privy to. There’s a lot of contributing factors and people that probably you’d need to ask them.”

He continued: “Up until 1pm yesterday afternoon there was still dialogue and discussion about whether we could put the team that I wanted to put out in. This is a late thing that’s happened and so we’re all a little but disappointed because we just want to showcase the game.

“We’ve got the players there and I can always deal with things when I can apply logic but I struggle to apply logic to this.

“We’ve got a rule book at the RFL that I think can be a little bit rigid. You can always revert back to the rule if you want to apply the rules rigidly or you can make things happen and work for the good of the game.

“We’ve gone down the rigid route in my opinion and the good of the game to me would have been a more important route to take and one that I don’t think anybody would have complained about. We’ve been played and paid in full so just play the game.”

Of the side Rowley picked for the game, seven were making debuts at first grade level, while others featured last year when the club named a much-changed line-up to take on Wigan Warriors ahead of the play-offs. And, despite the result, the head coach was proud of their efforts.

“It was a tough ask, a bunch of young lads who were excited about the prospect of coming to probably the most decorated team in the last decade,” he added. “They did absolutely their best but like I said pre-match in preparation for this game with a full squad, you need to be physically prepared and ready to apply yourself physically. I’ve shook everyone’s hand, they’ve done their best and we move on. It wasn’t a good day.

“They’d do it again in five minutes if you asked them so that’s probably heart ruling the head. There’s 150 years of history in a club, it has a lot of skeletons in your closet and it’s a complex acquisition.

“Our players have been paid in full, and on time, so we’ve bought the car, it’s in the garage and full of petrol, we just can’t drive it. It’s slightly illogical to me.”

Complete dominance from @Saints1890 👊

Full highlights available here 👇#SuperLeague

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 16, 2025