Clinical Cas end Reds Wembley dream!
Coach Ian Watson was forced to make changes at hooker with Tommy Lee out injured and with Logan Tomkins suspended so prop-forward Phil Joseph slotted in at number 9,a leg injury ruled out Josh Griffin. He was replaced by Josh Jones. Weller Hauraki took over in the second-row whilst Daniel Vidot made his debut on the wing after a long-term injury. Castleford were struggling with injuries too,lacking seven regulars.
The Reds were the first on the score-sheet in this Ladbrokes Challenge Cup 6th Round tie when Junior Sau shrugged of a few tacklers to cross in the corner in the 8th minute. Gareth O’Brien landed a great touch-line conversion for a 0-6 lead.
Four minutes later the scores were level when Joel Monaghan knocked a kick back to second-rower Mike McMeekin to score. Paul McShane added the conversion (6-6).
The Reds regained the lead in the 28th minute when a neat kick by Robert Lui was pounced on by Sau for his second try. O’Brien’s kick took the score to 6-12.
With half-time approaching the Reds were hit by a Cas double when firstly Jake Webster followed up a kick to score in the 36th minute and then three minutes later a neat interchange of passes enabled McMeekin to romp over for his second try. Both tries were goaled for a 18-12 interval advantage.
The start of the second-half brought no respite for the Reds as they failed to gather a loose ball which led to winger Denny Solomona scoring within seconds (22-12).
In the 48th minute Michael Dobson sent Lui plunging over to give the Reds a foothold in the game. O’Brien converted (22-18).
Cas were though to regain the upper-hand when hooker turned scrum-half McShane dummied his way over to leave both Sau and O ‘Brien sprawling. He added the extras too (28-18).
In the 74th minute Cas clinched victory when a Dobson pass was intercepted by Solomona who sped 75 yards to score (32-18).
After a bright first half hour the Reds fell away badly when conceding two tries in quick succession just before the break and a third within seconds of the re-start.
They were never able to deal with kicks to either corner and seemed to lack the desire to make Challenge Cup headway. Cas on the other hand overcame their injury crisis to put in a great performance.
Coach Watson conceded later :”We were beaten by a better team,”
“We started off okay and scored the try but then kind of started to crumble from there.
“Cas had a real simple game and played too fast for us and probably bullied us.
“It hurts to be dominated that way. We’ve not been like that all season so we need to rectify that really quickly and prove we aren’t a group that gets bullied.
“We’ll have a little look at ourselves and rebuild because all our focus is on Super League obviously.”
Salford: O’Brien, Carney,Sau,Jones, Vidot,Lui, Dobson, Kopczak, Joseph, G Griffin, Murdoch-Masila, Hauraki, Flanagan.
Subs: J Walne, A Walne, Krasniqi, Evalds.
Referee: Mr J Childs
Attendance: 3,317
