Salford impress away at Giants
1 Feb 2019
Niall Evalds scored a second-half hat-trick of tries to give Salford Red Devils a flying start to their Betfred Super League season and condemn hosts Huddersfield Giants to a nightmare introduction to 2019.
Until the Red Devils’ livewire full-back took matters into his own hands in the final quarter, there had been little between the two teams.
.@SalfordDevils on 🔥 to open their 2019 campaign#SLHudSal #NewBeginnings pic.twitter.com/dopOxFzehJ
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 1, 2019
However, his quickfire double midway through the second period proved decisive as the visitors produced a sprint finish to storm to an emphatic 34-14 victory.
Ken Sio also crossed over for a brace - and converted his second - with Junior Sa’u and Derrell Olpherts adding one try apiece for the visitors as Joey Lussick added a conversion and penalty.
The Giants replied with tries from Akuila Uate and Kruise Leeming with Izaac Farrell kicking over two penalties and converting both tries.
Fair play @SalfordDevils fans, You made some noise tonight! Great start to the 2019 season. Well done @ken_sio1 on debut class! Thanks @Giantsrl for the game, You’ll be fine when all the lads are back on deck! On to next week now! Goodnight 👹??
— Jackson Hastings (@JackoHastings) February 1, 2019
Salford coach Ian Watson said: "I’m obviously delighted with the way it went. To be honest, it couldn’t have gone much better for an opening day.
"But while I’m happy, I also know there’s still a great deal of improvement in us, which I suppose makes this win even more encouraging.
"Our combinations looked great and the spine of the team was there and doing a great job straight away."
?? One from one.
💪 #TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/mfQTQXLUuo
— Salford Red Devils (@SalfordDevils) February 1, 2019
Huddersfield coach Simon Woolford said: "We were just nowhere near good enough. It was really disappointing.
"It’s true that we did have a number of senior players out injured – that caused a fair bit of disruption – but our team was still good enough to win the game.
"But you’re not going to win if you defend like we did. What was really bad about it was that Salford scored so many tries of a similar fashion and we just didn’t learn from that as the game went on, they just kept on scoring the same way."
