London 28-58 Salford: Evalds shines in Red Devils win
Last Updated: 04/08/19 5:49pm
Niall Evalds scored a hat-trick as Salford thumped London Broncos 58-28 to boost their play-off hopes and push the hosts closer towards relegation.
The Broncos had beaten a weakened St Helens a fortnight ago, but there was to be no repeat here as Salford dominated from the off on their way to an emphatic victory.
London sit two points adrift at the bottom of the table while Salford are two points outside the top five.
The first score of the game came when Jackson Hastings' expertly placed grubber kick through to the corner allowed Krisnan Inu to touch down.
They were in again moments later, Tyrone McCarthy bursting through the London line and offloading to Mark Flanagan to finish off by the posts.
Two tries soon became three, on tackle five and with the ball on the Broncos' five-metre line, when Hastings offloaded to Josh Jones, who barged his way through to touch down.
Salford very nearly made it four tries, but were thwarted on the fourth tackle when Rhys Williams read the pass superbly, intercepted the ball and sprinted 95 metres to score under the posts. Kieran Dixon converted to cut the deficit to 12 and give the Broncos some hope.
The hope did not last long though, Evalds diving on to another perfectly placed kick through to give them back their 18 point lead. That was compounded even further after half an hour when Tui Lolohea read Jordan Abdull's pass and went the length of the field.
Salford refused to take their foot off the gas and were in again on the stroke of half-time, Inu latching on to Hastings' long pass in the corner from five metres out to make it 36-6 at the break.
The Red Devils started the second half as they ended the first by piling on the pressure and were on the scoreboard within five minutes. Hastings sold an expert dummy and with only full-back Alex Walker to beat, unselfishly laid off to Evalds to race through.
Kris Welham was next to get his name on the scoresheet, scooping up Hastings' long pass to go through.
The hosts responded as Luke Yates went over from a few metres out to cut the lead back to 48-12.
Almost immediately, Salford were on the board again, Hastings bursting down the left wing to score in the corner to make it 52-12 with 20 minutes left.
Broncos hit back with tries from Matty Fleming and Sadiq Adebayi, but it was too little too late.
There was just enough time for Evalds to complete his hat-trick, with Rob Butler's final score for the Broncos no consolation for the league's bottom side.
