IT CAN BE a grim business, knowing there’s a big party occurring to which you’ve not been invited.

That’s the situation Salford and Halifax have found themselves in this week, unavoidably aware that Super League is celebrating its 30th anniversary – and that despite their significant contributions to the first three decades of the competition since 1996, they’re currently very much on the outer.

So it was a tribute to both clubs, and the huge efforts that have been made over the last three months to rescue them from the far grimmer threat of disappearing completely, that they were able to come together for a thoroughly enjoyable Friday night kitchen disco.

No Sky cameras, no video-referee, but a sprinkling of familiar names who have played their part in Super League’s first 30 years – and certainly no lack of commitment on the field from the players, or off it from a quietly remarkable crowd of 3,125.

Ultimately the extra size and smartness that Halifax managed to retain in the four weeks between liquidation in February and readmission to the Championship at the start of this month proved just enough to secure a second consecutive victory in a match featuring nine tries – but most memorable for a cover tackle.

Ben Crooks, who still holds a piece of Super League history through the freakish try inside seven seconds he scored for Hull KR against Huddersfield in 2021 – and whose dad Lee had a part in the birthday weekend leading the legends parade before Hull FC’s match against Catalans – set up the second try and dummied over for the third which secured a 16-10 half-time lead, perhaps enjoying the enforced return to fullback after having started the season in the pack.

Adam O’Brien, a product of the King Cross amateur club who made 120 appearances for Huddersfield before joining his home town club two years ago, laid on the first of two tries for the impressive Australian forward Owen McCarron which extended that lead early in the second half – and watching on initially from the media benches now used by visiting coaches, and later from the touchline, was Kyle Eastmond, who made such an impact in his early playing days with St Helens from 2007-11 before his instinctive brilliance was lost to rugby union.

Irritatingly, Fax were playing not in the blue and white worn by the heartening number of supporters who had made a Friday night trip across the Pennines, but for some reason in an all-green strip against Salford’s traditional red.

But there was the reassuring presence of a Fairbank in their team – Jacob, now 36 and in his 17th season, one of the 14 players who wanted to stick with the club despite interest from others, and uncompromising as ever in the backrow.

It may have been more than two decades since Fax played in the Super League but they featured strongly in the first eight seasons of the competition, most successfully in 1998 when a team coached by John Pendlebury and featuring the likes of Gary Mercer, Karl Harrison and a young Chris Chester finished third in the table – to earn a place in the original top five play-offs.

Harrison provides a strong link with Salford, having guided the club to their own first play-off finish in 2006 during a five-year coaching stint at The Willows – and many others have given good service to clubs who have shared plenty of history since Salford joined Fax in the Northern Union for its second season in 1896, from Colin Dixon to Andrew Dunemann.

Salford have been a much more sustained presence through Super League’s first 30 seasons, with Andy Gregory’s team arriving for the second edition in 1997 having missed the original cut (although they did knock Wigan out of the Challenge Cup!).

They were relegated in 2002 after an initial six-season stint, and again in 2007 immediately after that stirring campaign under Harrison. But they’d only missed those three years in 30 – 1996, 2003 and 2008 – with a successful application for one of the original Super League licences in 2009 beginning a 17-season stay which included the move from Weaste to Eccles and the famous Million Pound win at Hull KR in 2016, as well as the golden years under Ian Watson and Paul Rowley which secured three more play-off appearances in 2019, 2022 and 2024.

Their fans enriched the 2019 Grand Final at Old Trafford, but were largely absent from the 2020 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley because of Covid – and of course they had to endure the relentless misery of 2025.

Ryan Brierley, another man who has provided plenty of highlights to Super League’s first three decades, admits that after the euphoria of their opening night against Oldham in January, reality is now settling in.

But after a morale-boosting win against Hunslet in their last home game they were again encouragingly competitive here, fielding for the first time a team without a Super League loanee, and their spirit epitomised by Jack Bibby, a Boltonian prop who has somehow made senior appearances for ten different clubs even though he’s still only 24 – he should do a post-grad on dual-registration.

Early in the game, with Salford leading 4-0 through Ollie Garmston’s opening try, Bibby showed astonishing determination and sustained speed to chase down a Halifax intercept.

“That was unbelievable – Jack’s the sort of player we can build a culture around,” said Dave Hewitt, the former Oldham halfback who inherited the Salford hotseat in midweek when Mike Grady stood aside for personal reasons, and whose eloquent and engaging post-match conference suggested we may hear much more from him.

Hewitt will now prepare the Devils for an Easter Sunday derby at Swinton, which will ensure Super League’s Rivals Round is replicated in the Championship, a first competitive league meeting with the Lions for decades, and which will surely see hundreds of Salford fans enjoying a tram trip to Heywood Road.

Frustratingly, Fax don’t have an Easter fixture, with their traditional rivals Bradford now back in the Super League. So they’ll again be on the outside looking in this weekend – but as with Salford, knowing it could be a lot worse.

Halifax have given so much to Rugby League’s story, from Odsal in 1954 to Chris Anderson’s 85-86 champions, and not overlooking the special place of the town and the club in the development of Wheelchair Rugby League – a point that was stressed encouragingly quickly by Martyn Buchan, the new Chairman, who was the driving force behind their rapid rebirth, in a pre-match conversation.

That shouldn’t be forgotten, even if they didn’t make the cut for Super League’s 30th birthday bash.