Kallum Watkins says sizzling Salford reminds him of Leeds’ glory teams - and feels they can’t replicate their Super League glory.
The Red Devils have booked their play-offs spot playing some brilliant rugby league that’s so easy on the eye. Paul Rowley’s free-flowing side might be the lowest spenders in the competition but are definitely high up when it comes to excitement. England international Watkins is one of their biggest attacking threats having switched from centre to second-row.
He was on the scoresheet again in Sunday’s 50-10 rout of Castleford. Silky Salford are Super League’s form team, smashing four successive wins on the bounce to seal their top-six berth. They are up to fifth ahead of Saturday’s final regular round against Warrington and then they head to either Huddersfield or Catalans for their play-off eliminator.
Watkins was part of the Leeds squad that made history by twice winning Grand Finals from fifth spot. And, with half-backs Brodie Croft and Marc Sneyd pulling the strings, he sees resemblances in the way Salford - who finished 11th last term - are now playing. Watkins, 31, said: “It is definitely right up there.
“Especially when at Leeds, there was a lot of ad-lib stuff, playing off offloads. It’s a little bit different here. We’ve probably got a little more structure but we’re able to back ourselves and express ourselves in that. We’re scoring some great tries. We’re varying the play and making sure we’re patient with it as sometimes it’s not always going to come off.
“That's when we need to settle it down and get control. But Sneydy and Crofty do that for us really well. And we do have that confidence that we can do something. Over the past five or six weeks, it’s really grown.”
Salford hope to thrive on their feelgood factor as they head into the business end of the campaign. They shocked many by reaching their maiden Grand Final in 2019. But now they want to go one step further and win it. Watkins, who scored his tenth try of the season at Castleford, said: “That’s our aim.
“We've spoken about being successful and I think this club deserves it. Especially this year, Rowls, the coaching staff and the imports we've brought in have done a really good job for us. We’ve a good group who work hard for each other and we showed that especially in patches against Cas.
“With the ball, we're confident with it and expressing ourselves when we can. We know the play-offs are coming up and it’ll be a lot of hard work to get to where we want to be. But at the same time we've some confidence going into that.”
