Ian Watson full of praise for Salford star Joey Lussick

Salford coach Ian Watson believes hooker Joey Lussick has been fantastic ever since he joined the club.

The 23-year-old joined the Red Devils ahead of the Qualifiers last season from Manly Sea Eagles, alongside Jackson Hastings.

And after starring in Salford’s narrow 30-26 defeat to Wigan on Easter Monday, Watson spoke highly of Lussick.

He said: “Joey’s been great and he’s had a lot of game time this year at nine.

“He’s played a lot of 80-minute games as well. He’s never done the two games in four days over Easter before, so we were trying to be smart with Joey. He played around 60 minutes against Warrington and interchanged with Logan [Tomkins] against Wigan. He did really well and he’s been fantastic since he arrived here.

“Our back five have been really good and really consistent this season as well. They have been getting us on the front foot and gaining good metres as well, so they are taking a bit of work from the middles. If the forwards are under the pump then we can bring them guys in, so they do share the workload really well.

“It would have been a great Easter if we picked off Warrington and Wigan. We would have been putting the pressure on the top teams to compete at the top end of the table, but we’ve come away from that now.”

The Red Devils sit seventh in the Super League table on 10 points, having won five games out of 12.

And Watson insists his side need to string a couple of wins together in the coming weeks against opposition who are currently lower than them in the ladder.

He added: “This weekend’s game against London is massive for us now.

“We have got a good run of games coming up. We’ve got London, Leeds, Hull KR, St Helens and Hull KR again, so we’ve got some big weeks ahead.

“We should be seeing games out but errors bit us on the back on two last tackle plays against Wigan, which is something we need to tidy up but some of it is down to individuals concentrating.”

Salford half-back Rob Lui didn’t feature against Wigan due to a tight hamstring but he will be assessed further ahead of Saturday’s trip to London.