Salford Red Devils 20-22 Hull KR: Hall at the double in Rovers win
By Marc Bazeley at Anfield
Last Updated: 26/05/19 5:58pm
Craig Hall led the way with two tries as Hull Kingston Rovers eased their relegation fears with a narrow 22-20 victory over Salford Red Devils in the opening game of day two of Super League's Magic Weekend.
Converted tries from Josh Drinkwater and Hall had helped put Rovers in control during the first 40 minutes, but Salford gave themselves a glimmer of hope on the stroke of half time with a score from Joey Lussick despite having Pauli Pauli in the sin-bin.
Full-back Hall's second soon after the restart put his side 14 points clear, but the Red Devils dug in and, helped by Ken Sio's double, managed to get back on level terms with 10 minutes left - only for Ryan Shaw to slot over a 74th-minute penalty which proved enough to seal the win.
It was an emotional day for the Red Devils too, who were paying tribute to seriously-injured former team-mate Jansin Turgut - with Jackson Hastings sporting his friend's name on the back of his jersey.
Salford showed some positive early signs, with half-back Hastings pulling the strings, and Niall Evalds and Gil Dudson making some strong carries. However, the closest they came to opening the scoring was when Sio was unable to gather the ball after Hastings had picked him out on the wing.
A long spell of possession in the Red Devils' half after Evalds ended up knocking the ball into touch from a kick while trying to avoid it brought no reward for Rovers either, with Josh Drinkwater knocking on after chasing down his own grubber kick.
The cat-and-mouse nature of the game continued, but the deadlock was finally broken in the 18th minute when Rovers got a roll on following a penalty, and a darting run from Craig Hall splintered the Salford defence before he sent Linnett powering in for a try converted by Ryan Shaw.
Three errors then proved costly for Salford. The first came when Danny McGuire won possession back for Rovers after there was no dummy-half when Kris Welham played the ball, and the next two were back-to-back penalties - the second of those being for dissent 10 metres from their own line.
Shaw duly to kicked the two points on offer and the winger was involved again in the 27th minute after angling a high kick from wide on the left infield, allowing Hall to nip in for a second converted try after Salford's defence failed to defuse the danger.
The Red Devils needed some cool heads to prevail, but instead lost loan signing Pauli to the sin-bin on the half-hour mark for his off-the-ball hit on Drinkwater.
However, the 12 men held out and then made the most of a rare attacking opportunity as hooker Lussick scampered over under the posts with a scoot from dummy-half to give Krisnan Inu a simple conversion attempt just before the hooter sounded for half time.
The Red Devils made some immediate inroads on their first set following the restart, but another penalty for dissent allowed Rovers to advance upfield.
They punished their opponents further when Olpherts spilled Drinkwater's grubber in the in-goal area and Hall snuck in again for his second try on 44 minutes, again converted by Shaw.
But the Red Devils hit back six minutes later when Joel Tomkins was penalised for lifting above the horizontal in a tackle - sparking a melee between the teams - by setting up an attack which saw Pauli bash his way through fro 20 metres out for a try converted by Inu.
They were in again in the 56th minute, this time through Sio as Welham flicked a one-handed pass out the back to Hastings, who in turn sent the winger racing over out wide. However, Inu's conversion attempt hit the posts.
Then with 10 minutes to go, the Australian winger was in again to level the scores as Salford worked a two-on-one situation on left and Welham provided the pass for Sio to acrobatically dive in for a second unconverted try.
Shaw put Rovers back in front with just under six minutes to go when he landed a penalty from around 35 metres out and that proved enough to secure two valuable points as Tim Sheens' men withstood a late rally from Salford.
Match reaction
Man of the match Craig Hall has his sights firmly set on the teams above Hull KR following their Magic Weekend win over Salford Red Devils.
Hull KR head coach Tim Sheens reflected on two very differing halves for his side as they edged out Salford at Anfield.
Salford Red Devils head coach Ian Watson was left to rue disciplinary lapses from his team.
