Watson fires up the Red Devils

Salford boss Ian Watson’s half-time pep talk was the catalyst for the Red Devils securing their place in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals on Friday.

Hull KR flew out of the blocks to open up a 14-0 lead, but Salford fought back to eventually record a 24-14 victory.

“At half-time, we just spoke honestly as a group,” said Watson. “We knew the standards they were reaching in the first half didn’t measure up to what we expect. We allowed Hull KR to dictate the speed of the game.

“We also spoke about us being soft in defence. They were dominating the ruck and getting up too quickly. We had to stop that and fortunately for us we did.

“They (Rovers) had a big dig and credit to them. We had to restructure and fixed it up in the second half.”