SALFORD RED DEVILS were roasted in the south of France on Saturday night and coach Paul Rowley couldn’t wait to return to rainy Manchester for some cool air and cold, hard conversations.
Rowley was disappointed with his side’s indiscipline in a 42-0 defeat to Super League leaders Catalans Dragons and refused to blame selection difficulties for the team’s performance.
He was only able to name an initial 19-man travelling squad because of injuries and then lost prop forward King Vuniyayawa because of a Visa issue at French passport control.
Rowley said after Saturday’s game: “I don’t quite know the full details at this stage, but I went through passport control just before him, so you’d have to ask someone else to explain why. It’s disappointing, but we aren’t looking for excuses, we won’t play the victim at all.
“Obviously he will be available this week and we’re hoping to have a couple of bodies back for the St Helens game, but we also have a couple of concerns from tonight. We’ll have a good look when we get back into Manchester and see where we are at.”
Rowley remained positive despite the club’s recent slump in form, adding: “It’s so important we don’t get on a slippery slope; we still have the same ambitions and values and there may be some hard, even brutal, conversations to be had, but they will be behind closed doors because that’s what the players deserve and the way we prefer to do things.
“We can’t implement a game plan without the ball. We saw glimpses when we looked okay with the ball in hand and we were challenging them, but our inability to complete sets – we had six in the first half they had 24, and we had 33 percent completion and 33 per cent possession – you couldn’t do that in the rain of Manchester, never mind Catalans’ 30-degree heat.
“It’s the same weather for both sides, but that’s where disciplined and intelligent Rugby League is needed and we weren’t that today.
“You can only win Rugby League games if you get into the cycle and grind with discipline and I’ve got a good group here; they have enormous heart and will, but sometimes you need to be a little smarter and have some substance in those tough moments.
“You have to give credit to Catalans – they have got smart players; they are well coached and we respect and pay credit to our opposition. They did everything well that we should have been doing.
“The Hail Mary pass or sneaking it out of the back door is not always the answer; you need to build pressure with discipline and our inability to do that against Catalans fatigued us.”
The Red Devils wilted in the heat and humidity at Stade Gilbert Brutus and Rowley had to conduct his half-time team-talk on the pitch because of the conditions.
He added: “We did our half-time talk on the pitch purely because of the heat; it was a bit of a sauna in the dressing rooms so I thought we’d be better served outside.
“We had a quick chat in the changing room and then went out into the cooler breeze; there was nothing more to it than that, I was just trying to get the players’ temperature down.”
Rowley paid tribute to the 600-or-so Salford supporters who sang from start to finish in Perpignan on Saturday night, adding: “To have that kind of support makes it tougher when you have a disappointing night like this because they were tremendous; they love a trip to Catalans and they were fantastic as always.
“We’re really grateful as a team, we win together and we lose together and they inspire us to work harder.”
