Salford Red Devils recruitment update as latest 2025 plans revealed as coach queries refereeing consistency

Salford assistant Krisnan Inu met with the press on Friday morning for the club’s weekly briefing ahead of the Red Devils’ Super League clash with Huddersfield Giants.

There were once again plenty of talking points from the coach’s chat, and here, we’ve put together a notebook for the Salford faithful…

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Reaction post-Leigh Leopards thumping

Paul Rowley’s side fell to a heavy 26-0 defeat against Leigh Leopards at Magic Weekend, making it two defeats on the spin against fellow play-off hopefuls for the Red Devils having been beaten by St Helens the week prior.

During the first half of last Sunday’s loss at Elland Road, both Ethan Ryan and Brad Singleton were sent to the sin-bin within a few moments of each other, seeing them play virtually 10 minutes with just 11 players on the field.

Inu said: “The reaction has been like anyone else after a loss.

“I think we were a bit disappointed, we know we could have done better and it’s something we needed to work on this week.

“I thought we shot ourselves in the foot in a few moments, and by the time we wanted things to start happening, it was too late.

“I thought we showed great character after going down two men, but things just didn’t go our way and we shot ourselves in the foot and let ourselves down where we’re normally good.”

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Consistency in officiating

New rules around the ruck were introduced at the start of this season, in an effort to ‘clean up’ a problem area, but Inu admits he feels like some of those laws are not being consistently officiated.

“A lot of new rules came in this year, and we trained really well on these in pre-season.

“It’s funny that some things we worked hard on have fallen out the window, it’s like a whole new game again.

“All of a sudden, play-the-balls don’t matter anymore and we’ve been playing 12 meters (back after the tackle), I thought it was 10.

“I’m not just talking about last week, that’s been happening all season, so that’s not having a dig.

“We just need to be consistent as a game. I know our boys train hard in the way the rules were given to us at the start of the year and we’ll just keep doing that.”

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Key men missing

Salford don’t have the biggest squad at their disposal as it is, but this week they will be without star men  Tim Lafai and Ollie Partington, both suspended, as well as Sam Stone who has failed a HIA so sits out due to concussion protocols this weekend.

Despite that trio being absent, Inu insists the Greater Manchester outfit will make ‘no excuses’ if they don’t perform against Huddersfield, detailing how the squad are willing to ‘help each other out’ in situations like this.

“We’re not blessed with the biggest team, but we’ve got a right squad. They help each other out and fill in those holes, everyone plays their part.

“Having those key players out, especially coming up to a big game, it plays a big part in our preparation.

“The boys are up for the challenge though and there will be no excuses.”

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Recruitment update

As alluded to above, the Red Devils are always fairly low on numbers compared to most of the teams they’re competing with, and though the club’s budget isn’t the biggest, recruitment is still on the agenda to to grow the squad.

Salford fans will be pleased to hear that Inu revealed to Love Rugby League there are ‘a few people in the mix’ to join the club come 2025.

The assistant detailed: “We’re always looking for numbers. We probably have the smallest squad in the competition, and we’re always looking to add. There’s a few people in the mix.”

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