Salford City Roosters featured 4 debutants in their 19 man squad for the home friendly against first division Ince Rose Bridge but were soundly beaten by the Wiganer’s. Coach Paul Verdon won’t read too much into the score however as the game was very much an experiment and there were still some outstanding performances, none more so than man of the match Bradley White.
Last season’s player of the year Joe Connor was a spectator as he awaits surgery on a injury and Mark Thomas is serving a 2 match ban while up to 6 other players were unavailable due to work commitments.
There was nothing to choose between the sides in the opening quarter and certainly no sign of the avalanche of points that was to come, but it was Roosters who came closest to breaking the deadlock on 14 minutes when White followed up his own kick and panicked Callum Hughes into conceding a goal line drop out. Everything changed on 20 minutes though when Roosters made 7 changes, and while the introduced players settled into the side the visitors scored 3 tries in 10 minutes through Callum Hughes, Nick Stanton and Chris Boylan, all converted by Robbie Valentine (0-18).
Roosters opened their account on 34 minutes when Marc Gilligan sent Ben Connor crashing through the defence for a try that White converted (6-18), but right on the half-time whistle Ryan Eccleston latched onto a kick to the in goal to score a try that Valentine again converted (6-24).
The second half was only 3 minutes old when Hughes’ second try, improved by Valentine, made the score 6-30, but Roosters were next over the try line on 55 minutes. Will Rigby fed White and his audacious “back door” pass allowed Mike Foster to score, although too wide out for White to convert (10-30).
As the game moved into the final quarter Ince really cut loose and hit the Roosters with 4 tries in 7 minutes through Adam Dwyer, Eccleston’s second try, Hughes’s hat trick and Connor Matthews. Valentine failed to convert the first 2 but change kicker Danny Cassidy improved the second 2 to make the score 10-50. Immediately following the last try though Roosters regained possession from the kick off brilliantly through Andrew Muscat and this led to White’s first try, although with an element of luck. His low kick bounced up kindly off defender Matty Meadon’s foot, straight back into White’s hands for an easy try and conversion (16-50).
There was no luck about White’s second effort though on 73 minutes when he weaved his way through the defence from 20 metres out for a superb individual try that he also converted (22-50), and that proved to be the final score of the day.
Ince finished the game with 11 players though as both Tom Whittle and Chris Boylan were sin binned in the last 5 minutes for arguing with the referee.
