Watson provides injury update after heavy defeat to Leeds

Salford head coach Ian Watson made no excuses for his team’s resounding 50-12 loss at the hands of Leeds despite losing four key players to injury.

The Red Devils, who had not played for 20 days, were slow out of the blocks at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and were put the sword by a resurgent Rhinos side.

“We can use our time off as an excuse if we wanted to,” said Watson. “[But] rugby League is a simple game, it is about attitude in defence and we did not have the right attitude to defend.

“We started fine but then I think Joey (Lussick) kicked the ball dead and then our momentum fell.

“With the ball in hand, we had plenty of opportunities where we opened them up, but if you do not want to defend and turn the ball over cheaply and give the opposition seven tackle sets, you will lose big like we have done tonight.

“When we first came back, we were brilliant. We came back bouncing after the lockdown but then having two weeks in isolation might not have helped us.

“But the game does come down to about attitude in a war of attrition and we have to come out of the other side of that.”

As mentioned, the defeat had further repercussions for Watson with Salford finishing the match with several key players on the sidelines.

“Ken (Sio) and Josh (Johnson) look like they have hyper-extended their knees,” Watson explained.

“They will have scans. We will check the severity of their injuries on Monday.

“Chris Atkin looks like he has broken a rib. Ryan Lannon looks to have picked up a thumb injury which is why he came off too.”