Salford Red Devils coach Ian Watson has insisted his side are not concentrating on the ability of Championship front-runners Leigh, but their own capabilities ahead of the eagerly-anticipated showdown between the two sides on Saturday.
Watson takes his Salford side to the Leigh Sports Village looking to make it two wins from two and take a significant step back towards Super League for 2017 in the process.
However, they face a Centurions side regarded by many as the leading contenders for promotion this year, but Watson has stressed that his side cannot afford to hung up on Leigh.
“We want to take forward the confidence from which we played with on Sunday. With the way the boys executed their plans we need to take it forward going into Leigh,” he said.
“We need to make sure we’re focussing on us and nobody else. We need to focus on our strengths and what we can do aaginst them in regards to their strengths. We know what they’re about; they’re a good physical team and it’s up to us to combat that.”
Watson praised young winger Mason Caton-Brown for his hat-trick exploits last weekend, saying: “Mason has got some pure speed about him; you get him in a little bit of space and you know he’s gone. Huddersfield have changed the way they have defended under Rick Stone and it seemed that if we had some speed on the edges we’d get them – so it was a blessing having Mason fit and available.”
And the Salford coach also expects more from new signings Feleti Mateo and Luke Burgess as they gradually get used to life at the club.
He said: “They’ll be better for that game last week. Feleti was fresh off the flight so he was obviously going to pull up at some stage but now he’s had a full week’s training under his belt, like Luke, so they should both be stronger for that.”
