For those still in Lloret, you missed a treat...
Leeds kicked off to us. On 2nd tackle the ball was moved to Hastings who broke the line but threw a pass from a tricky position and evalds couldn’t take it. 2 tackles later Leeds scored far too easily and it didn’t look good. But the next 20 minutes were the best we’ve played this season (in my opinion). Hastings repeatedly took on the line. Leeds didn’t know if he was passing or running and that created space for Lui, Evalds and others. Hastings also immediately started organising and calling plays and everyone responded. Was interesting to see Lui being pushed wider by Hastings but boy did it work; Lui looks so much better at 2nd or 3rd receiver bringing the backs and 2nd rowers into the game
Chamberlain had a great game. He made a 60m break to set up the position for the first try and showed great feet and pace to score his. He missed one really easy kick but nailed some from the touchline.
But it was all about Hastings really. He must have made half a dozen tackle busts. He made a break throwing an outrageous dummy to get through the line and fed Evalds to score. He was possibly trying a bit hard at times. His first offload to Evalds and one that went over Sau’s head were both very risky plays but he was trying to do something with every play and gave Leeds no peace at all. Quality performance. He got his try and limped off after he was involved in chamberlains.
It looked like we were going to implode at that point. As soon as he went off we made a mistake, then Mossop was sent off and Leeds scored another soft try to be back within 10 points. But our defence then kicked in and we kept Leeds out with good defence in the middle, scrambling out wide and on our line. We looked poor with ball in hand though. Until the lasr minute of the half on the last tackle Lui set the team up to go right and then ran back left and over the line. Classy play to finish the half on top
Second half Leeds started well pinnIng us in our own half. We defended well but couldn’t get any ground forward. Lui wasn’t managing the game as he should have done. He wasn’t finding touch with his kicks so we had no respite. But he started changing that and finding touch even if only on their 40 which started to give us breathers and regroup. But Leeds were still on top and Moon broke through the middle and they scored. After that though we dominated Lui controlled the game brilliantly
The turning point came ironically from what I thought was a bad decision. We were 10 up and got a penalty 40 out. We went for goal, missed and it didn’t go dead. I think we should have put it in the corner and had the ball for a few minutes as the kick only kept us 2 scores ahead. Anyhow a bit of Lui magic clinched the game for us. He stripped the ball from the Leeds player running the ball back out from the missed kick. That set up the position for Evalds to score and we never looked back. The forwards worked tirelessly with Moose off. Especially Tasi and Jones. Lannon had one of his best games for us and Flash was quality at hooker
Lui managed the game really well and put a lovely kick through for the last try. I was surprised at Leeds tactics - they played a lot through the middle and didn’t use their man advantage much at all. But it was a great performance by Salford and will give fans and team confidence going into the 8s