Hull boss Tony Smith “embarrassed” by Salford hammering

Hull head coach Tony Smith made no excuses after watching his side capitulate on home soil, falling to a 60-14 hammering to Salford at the MKM Stadium. 

It was also the first ever pay-per-view streamed Super League game on the Our League platform.

The hosts had opened the scoring through Australian half-back Jake Clifford just four minutes into the Round Four clash.

However, Paul Rowley’s side soon after asserted their dominance, running in a total of 10 tries, five either side of the break. England international Marc Sneyd converting eight of those, and adding two penalties, as well being among the try-scorers.

Tony Smith: I’m disappointed and embarrassed

“I’m disappointed and embarrassed,” Smith said in his post-match press conference.

“We understand that we aren’t representing our club the way we want to at the moment and it hurts.

“When you’re having to defend with scramble and desperation regularly it drains you mentally and physically. It takes away from what you throw at your opponents, and we were gassed at different stages. It’s not a good cycle to get into.”

It’s a somewhat shock scoreline given that Paul Rowley only managed to name a 19-man squad heading into the clash due to injuries within the Red Devils camp.

And Smith praised Salford for showing a ruthless edge with ball in hand. Deon Cross, Shane Wright and Tim Lafai all crossed for their own braces. Kallum Watkins, Ryan Brierley, Tyler Dupree and Sneyd also scoring.

“There’s no excuses for that today. Our opponents are dangerous, if you give them a sniff and space to play they’ll rip you apart and credit to them,” he added.

“You can’t let the game get out of your control before you start inflicting pain on the opposition.

“We did it a little bit early but we didn’t put our foot on the throat. They did that to us, and we need to learn how to do that so that we aren’t getting to 50-point scorelines before we start scoring points.”

Paul Rowley praises Salford

On the winning side, Rowley was full of praise for his Salford squad, who lost both Oliver Partington and Joe Burgess during the week due to injuries.

“We were brilliantly led by our spine and they controlled the game from start to finish,” Rowley said.

“A standout would be Shane Wright. He trained well all week and performed consistently well today and did some really good things.

“We’re capable of scoring some tries which are good to watch and we were able to do that on the back of our defence. We had 55 percent possession which is good for a team like us. And we back ourselves with ball in hand.

“We found the flaws in Hull and our spine consistently exposed their flaws, which is great to see.”

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