The Saints made seven changes from the team that trounced Leeds Rhinos last week, handing debuts to five players.

However, the young side were narrowly defeated by this season’s Challenge Cup Finalists, reducing their lead at the top of the table.

Story of the Match

St Helens started superbly, opening the scoring within the first couple of minutes. A weaving run by Dominique Peyroux opened up the Salford defence before his pass sent Josh Eaves racing over.

Lewis Dodd converted and added two penalty goals to open up a 10-0 lead for the reigning champions.

Saints then came close more than once to extending their lead, with Peyroux and Jack Ashworth both going close, to no avail.

Just before half-time, Salford weathered the storm as a bullet pass from Tui Lolohea found Pauli Pauli, who crashed over, beating several defenders from ten metres.

Krisnan Inu converted to complete the first half at 10-6. 

Second Half

The Saints then missed a golden opportunity to regain a ‘two-try cushion’ as winger Tom Nisbet mistimed a slide for the line, losing possession before crossing the whitewash, awarding Salford with a 20-metre restart.

Shortly after, both teams then exchanged close efforts through Josh Simm and Lolohea, but the score remained the same.

Eventually, Salford managed the killer blow as a knock-on by Nico Rizzelli provided the Red Devils with the repeat set they needed.

From that, an offload from Pauli eventually saw possession shifted wide to Inu, who crashed through up to four Saints defenders to score and level things up.

Nerves of steel, Inu stepped up and slotted home the conversion to take Salford into the lead for the first time.

The Saints were not quite finished and managed to keep the ball alive but a try-saving tackle from Man of the Match Dan Sarginson prevented Simm from going over in the final seconds, sealing a memorable win for the Red Devils.

VAVEL Logo
About the author