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  With these two sides meeting in the Challenge Cup semi finals on Saturday evening this league match had something of a dress rehearsal feel to it. Both coaches had made changes to their respective squads. Their is an old saying though ‘your only as good as your last match’. No team wants to go into a big cup match on the back of a defeat. Three years ago when Salford met Wigan in the cup semi final they had been comprehensively beaten at Leigh the week before 25-0. Both sides were looking for a positive performance. The Red Devils may well have lost Luke Yates for the semi final due to suspension and the next few days will be tense as the club appeals this. Big news this afternoon was that Dan Sarginson’s suspension has been overturned. Although this match was once again behind closed doors, it was at the AJ Bell Stadium. Salford’s first fixture on their home ground since the 13th March. Ian Watson handed debuts to loan signings Olly Ashall-Bott and Tom Gilmore. Exciting youngster Lu

  These two sides will meet each other twice in a week. The Super League match takes place this Tuesday evening followed by a Challenge Cup Semi final clash on Saturday. We will take a closer look at the Cup tie later in the week.  Coming in to the League match Warrington are the form team in Super League. Since the season restarted in August Steve Price’s Wolves have won all six of their league matches as well as a tremendous Challenge Cup Quarter Final win over St. Helens. In fact you’ve got to go back to 28th February for Warrington’s last defeat when they were soundly beaten at Headingley by Leeds 36-0. Looking at the playing roster Price has to pick from you have to say the Wolves have one of the strongest squads in the competition. Their is certainly plenty of flair and big names as well as the selection of international talent. It’s a long time since Warrington last lifted the Championship Trophy in 1955. The club struggled through the early years of the Super League era with a

Last night saw two tries from Krisnan Inu helping Salford Red Devil’s to another win against Hull FC at the Halliwell Jones stadium. This can only boost the devils c onfidence ahead of the challenge cup semi final in a weeks time. Salford started brightly and had an opportunity as Kris Welham crashed over the line from close range, unfortunately the try was disallowed for a knock on and Hull survived. Hull opened the scoring as ex Salford favourite Josh Griffin burst through the Salford defence and fed Jamie Shaul who scored for the Airlie birds. Salford levelled the scores after 18 minutes, Dan Sarginson and Kevin Brown linked up to send Krisnan Inu over the line to score. With Inu adding the extras the scores were tied. Dan Sarginson was sent to the sin bin shortly after after he was penalised for a high tackle on Jamie Shaul and Salford had to play the next 10 minutes with 12 men. The pressure built on Salford and Hull took advantage of their numerical advantage as Andre Savelio fou

It was a really mixed bag for the two teams last weekend in the Challenge Cup. Hull were comprehensively beaten by Wigan on Sunday but on Friday night in a thrilling match Salford came from behind to beat Catalans in golden point extra time.  The two sides met back in August in Salford’s first match behind closed doors. The Red Devils were absolutely electric running away with a 54-18 victory. This is bound to be on the minds of the Hull players and their coach Andy Last will have them fired up for this match.  Since leaving the Boulevard and moving to the new stadium Hull have invested heavily in their playing squads over the past couple of decades. International Test players from Australia and New Zealand have played alongside a whole host of domestic talent. Despite lifting the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 2016 and 2017 success in the Super League has alluded Hull. If you were to write a school report for Hull it would probably say ‘could do better’. Having said that though they did

  A breezy but sunny evening welcomed the two sides at kick off for this Challenge Cup Quarter Final behind closed doors in St Helens. Ian Watson handed a debut to Kallum Watkins who started at centre. Dan Sarginson returned from injury and he slotted in at full back for the injured Niall Evalds. Andy Ackers missed out for Salford due to being cup tied and James Greenwood came in at second row. Captain Lee Mossop was also sidelined. Catalans who were beaten at home to Wigan last Saturday welcomed back two key players who missed that match. Josh Drinkwater and Michael McClorrum both started. The famous old Challenge Cup trophy stood proudly on display at pitch side prior to the kick off. A glorious site, one of the most iconic pieces of silverware in sport.  It wasn’t the best start for Salford as they kicked out on the full from the kick off. Catalans attacked and were awarded another penalty close to the try line. Lovely ball movement saw Fouad Yaha score in the corner. Super defence

Despite Salford having not played a game in the Cup this season, this match is a quarter final tie. Whisper it gently but a win on Friday puts us just eighty minutes from Wembley.  Since the birth of The Super League in 1996 a lot of emphasis is now heavily placed on the Grand Final for obvious reasons. For me though The Challenge Cup is the Holy Grail. A chance to grace Wembley and follow in the footsteps of so many great players. Wembley has seen some tremendous finals. The Water Splash between Wakefield and Leeds in 1968, Leigh upsetting Leeds in 1971, the all Hull final of 1980, Wigan and Hull’s epic in 1985, Halifax edging St. Helens in a thriller in 1987, two ding dong matches between Bradford and St. Helens in 1996 and 1997, Sheffield turning the tables on Wigan in 1998. The new Wembley has also seen some classic matches too. Catalans lifting the trophy a few years ago was certainly one of the highlights in recent years.  You’ve got to go back to 1969 for Salford’s last final. A

  After last weeks defeat Salford coach Ian Watson was forced to make changes after injuries struck. Krisnan Inu and James Greenwood came into the starting thirteen with Andy Ackers poised to make his debut off the bench. Kevin Brown got the Red Devils off to a flying start with an interception try off former Salford player George Griffin. Inu converted 6-0. Moments later some more classy play from Brown put Niall Evalds over for a try. In the week that the Tigers announced Evalds as their player for 2021 the star full back showed his class and professionalism to his current club. Inu again converted 12-0. Eleven minutes on the clock and Salford continue their complete dominance with Joey Lussick creeping over from close range.  Castleford struggled to gain a foothold in the match early on after being hit by a Salford world wind. Attitude in defence from the Red Devils was in complete contrast to last weeks debacle.  Despite a terrific effort in defence from Evalds he couldn’t prevent

  Both sides will be looking to bounce back after defeats last week. Despite racing into a twelve point lead Castleford were pegged back in their match with Wigan. The Warriors eventually made the game safe with tries from Liam Farrell and Joe Bullock in the final quarter. Two players who featured for Salford in 2019 are now playing for the Tigers. George Griffin is a real work horse in the pack and Derrell Olpherts is going well on the wing. One man who made an impression on me with his performance last weekend was Gareth O Brien.  The former Salford hero has been brought in at Castleford for this season on a short term deal from Toronto. He looked as sharp as ever against Wigan, scoring a try as well as linking up superbly in attack. With Niall Evalds joining the Tigers in 2021 where will that leave O’Brien? One thing is for sure he would fit it to most Super League sides and deserves to be playing top flight Rugby League. It will be interesting to see how that one works out. Salford