KALLUM WATKINS and Marc Sneyd responded to their England snub by helping secure back-to-back Salford wins.
Red Devils captain Watkins and scrum-half Sneyd both featured in the World Cup last autumn. But the 32 year-olds were left out of Shaun Wane’s latest 40-man squad today. They hit back in the best way possible, proving influential as Salford edged a scrappy affair with lowly Castleford. Second-row Watkins produced one of his vintage flick passes to set the excellent Ryan Brierley free in the 36th minute.
He kicked inside for Man of Steel Brodie Croft to score, Sneyd converting for a 6-6 interval scoreline. And then Sneyd produced the killer pass for Shane Wright to put Salford in front in the 57th minute. Sneyd - who earlier made a try-saving tackle on ex-Salford full-back Niall Evalds - improved and added a late penalty to see Paul Rowley’s side home.
But Rowley admitted: "It was an ugly win. But there's reasons for that. Everyone’s waxing lyrical we’ve got rid of Easter to protect athletes and the product yet we’ve just done an Easter after that Leigh game on Saturday. And we wouldn’t have won that last year so that’s progression.
"Ryan Brierley came up with some international class plays in defence, not just attack. Brodie Croft came off late on but he’s been ill. He’s only played two games this year where he’s not been poorly. He seems to be catching everything. He’s got young kids and it happens. We’ve not seen him all week. This is first time he’s pitched and he’s pumped full of antibiotics so I treated him well and gave him three minutes rest!
"We had to dig deep to win that but we got there and that’s the main thing."
Defeat was far from ideal for Castleford caretaker coach Andy Last who is due to have his official interview for the job on Friday. Ex-London boss Danny Ward and former Wigan chief Denis Betts are also reported to be in the running. Tigers have won twice in six games since Last replaced sacked Lee Radford and they took a third minute lead when Greg Eden finished off Kenny Edwards’ fine pass.
Gareth Widdop converted but there were few other chances for either side in the first period. Sneyd tried grubbering over but spilled at the vital moment. And then he found Joe Burgess with a long ball but the winger coughed up under pressure from Evalds when diving at the corner.
After Croft’s score, Salford’s Sam Stone had an effort disallowed at the start of the second period due to Chris Atkin’s knock-on.
And then came Sneyd’s fine stop on Evalds before Wright scored his fourth try of the year. Brierley also denied Adam Milner and Salford held on.
Last said: “The players are absolutely gutted in there. But they needed to be more clinical. I can’t fault the lads’ effort. It was sensational. But there was too many unforced errors and it means we’re doing too much defence. It always comes back to bite you. We made mistakes that shouldn't be made at this level. We're masters of our own downfall. It’s rugby league suicide.”
