Tag: Stade Gilbert Brutus

Talking Points | Catalans Dragons 0-46 Salford Red Devils

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Salford Red DevilsΒ earned a huge 0-46 victory overΒ Catalans Dragons to move up to 4th in the Betfred Super League and we take a look at some of the keyΒ talking points from the dominantΒ display.

Blistering Bibby

Jake Bibby made his first appearance of the 2019 Betfred Super League season and what an appearance it was. Bibby – who has predominantly featured on the wing for Salford – was named at centre and put on a fantastic attacking display down the left-hand side.
The 23-year-old crossed for two tries and also notched two try-assists. Bibby finished breakaway tries either side of half-time firstly planting down a Jackson Hastings kick before taking an offload and linking up with the halfback again to score just one minute after the interval.


Bibby was a constant threat for the Red Devils on the left-hand side and got his hands free on a number of occasions to offload the ball. Two of his offloads led to tries firstly his flick to Niall Evalds who punted the ball down field with George Griffin eventually finishing the move before Bibby returned the favour to Hastings as he flicked the ball out to the Australian for him to find the try-line.
The centre’s inclusion came about due to an injury to Junior Sa’u who had been ever-present up until this weekend. Bibby’s performance has emphasised the strength in depth in Ian Watson’s squad particularly in the centres alongside Kris Welham, Junior Sa’u and Ed Chamberlain.

Dogged Defence

Throughout the 2019 season so far, Head Coach Ian Watson has continuously made it clear that defence will win Salford Red Devils games, and this is something they have been working hard on which has been evident in the opening weeks of the season.
Salford Red Devils nilled London Broncos in Round Two of the 2019 season and this was the first time they had kept a team scoreless in the Betfred Super League since 2006. They also went on to keep Hull Kingston Rovers scoreless in the second half of their recent meeting which allowed a memorable comeback at KCOM Craven Park.

That resilient defence continued this weekend as the Red Devils managed to keep Catalans to nil in a fantastic performance. In the second half, Catalans did earn a number of repeated sets on the Salford line, but Ian Watson’s men stood firm and denied the Dragons.
It is extremely difficult to keep a side scoreless particularly away from home. The Red Devils will no doubt take confidence from this and be looking to carry this dogged defence into next weekend’s fixture against Castleford Tigers.

Away Form

It may be too early in the season to start discussing β€˜form’ however one thing that is clear is Salford Red Devils’ improvement on the road in the early stages of the 2019 Betfred Super League season.
Last year, the Red Devils won just one away game in the Betfred Super League and they have already trebled that tally in 2019. They earned yet another away victory against Huddersfield before an impressive comeback win against Hull Kingston Rovers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuzH4mhnoh9/
However, a 0-46 win over Catalans in Perpignan is certainly the most impressive victory so far considering the Red Devils hadn’t come away from the south of France with two points for eight long years.
This form has been helped by some brilliant travelling support from the Red Devils faithful at Huddersfield Giants, Hull Kingston Rovers and Catalans Dragons. This is something Ian Watson eluded to in his post-match press conference at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.

Lawton DebutsΒ 

Off-season signing Adam Lawton made his Betfred Super League bow for the Red Devils this weekend at Catalans coming off the interchange bench in the second half. Lawton had spent the last month on loan with Betfred Championship side Rochdale Hornets for whom he powered over for three tries.
While Lawton didn’t cross for a try, he immediately settled at the top level and didn’t put a foot wrong. Catalans had begun to apply a lot of pressure to the Salford line as Lawton entered the fray, but the former Widnes man stood strong and defended a number of goal line sets to help keep the Dragons out.

Lawton will be looking to push for a regular spot in the Salford side throughout the 2019 season and there is no question that the big man will cause issues for Betfred Super League defences with ball in hand.
 
Tickets for Salford Red Devils next fixture against Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Sunday 17thΒ March are now available from the Club Ticket Office and over theΒ phone on 0161 786 1570. For ticket and coachΒ details,Β click HERE.
Salford Red Devils next home fixture sees them welcome WiganΒ Warriors to the The Salford Stadium on Sunday 24th March and you can purchase tickets from the Club Ticket Office, overΒ the phone on 0161 786 1570 orΒ online HERE. For ticket prices, click HERE.

Ian Watson | “It’s our defence we take pride in”

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Head Coach Ian Watson was delighted with his sides 0-46 victory overΒ Catalans Dragons and discussed a range ofΒ pleasing aspects of the performance.

On theΒ performance…

We felt we did a lot of positive stuff last week against St Helens. We did things that maybe the supporters don’t notice but players see in those big game and we knew coming to Catalans we’d have to be at that level of performance or above it so we kept the game plan really simple this week because we knew how good Catalans were but coming here and nilling Catalans is above what we thought we’d achieve here.Β The defence won the game. The way we kicked them into pockets and then we were really resilient at the back end and that won us the game. The attack is the icing on the cake for us but it’s our defence we take pride in.

On surprising people with theΒ victory…

Every week we go in to play and I know the players and I believe we’ll beat everyone we play. It’s no surprise to me that we’ve won. We’ve got a good group but they’ve just got to grow and mature together in learning how to win the bigger games and the mentality we had against St Helens we had today as well, but we were better against Catalans. It shows we can beat teams by doing things right, but we’re used to people knocking us – it’s nothing new.

On the forward battle…

Our pack had a meeting the day before the game and said that if we were to win this game our pack needed to step up here. Lee Mossop – despite the latter not playing – led the way in that meeting, Mark Flanagan came back in and Gil Dudson has been a leader since he arrived, those guys stood up and made it clear they wanted to set a standard for the pack, and everyone has seen what they’re capable of. I thought Daniel Murray was outstanding and Ben Nakubuwai too. Adam Lawton must have come on and had to defend six goal line sets and that’s the tough part of the game and his attitude was not to be beaten there and that was the pleasing thing.

On Jake Bibby…

He was absolutely outstanding today. He’s been waiting for his chance and we’ve always had Junior Sa’u in there who always does a good job and is a leader for us. Bibby has had to be patient this season, but he’s took his chance today and put a bit of pressure in the centre positions. We’ve been waiting for Bibby to play because we sensed in pre-season, he was ready this year to step up and he’s shown a real good account of himself there.

On the halves…

I think Jackson Hastings and Rob Lui were very mature today. From the sideline you can hear them talking and Robbie was very mature in how he managed the game and he was talking to Jackson all the time, so he was helping him because we have to remember Jackson is only young and Robbie is the experienced half and he’s played outside Jonathan Thurston so he knows how to pass his maturity onto Jackson.

On preparing for Castleford…

We knew we were coming into a tough run of games but we’re confident as a group that we can perform, and we’ll be keeping our game plan really simple, so everybody knows their role. The lads deserve a lot of credit for this performance and should take the plaudits, but we’ll be back to work next week for Castleford.

On the attitude…

The pleasing stuff was when we defended a number of back-to-back sets and then went down the other end and the support play was still there. We did make an error, but our defensive line got straight back in position and that just shows your team is hungry and ready to work hard for each other.

OnΒ the travelling support…

We’ve spoken about the away fans all year and I think they’ve been outstanding at every game. You can’t knock them they were unbelievable singing the roof off the place. I know they love a good trip to Catalans, but this will be better for the result and they hope they enjoy their night.
 
Tickets for Salford Red Devils next fixture against Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Sunday 17thΒ March are now available from the Club Ticket Office and over theΒ phone on 0161 786 1570. For ticket and coachΒ details,Β click HERE.
Salford Red Devils next home fixture sees them welcome WiganΒ Warriors to the The Salford Stadium on Sunday 24th March and you can purchase tickets from the Club Ticket Office, overΒ the phone on 0161 786 1570 orΒ online HERE. For ticket prices, click HERE.

Match Report | Catalans Dragons 0-46 Salford Red Devils

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Β Salford Red Devils ended an eight year wait for a victory in Perpignan in emphatic fashion with a dominant 0-46 win over Catalans Dragons.
Jake Bibby and George Griffin both scored twice while Joey Lussick, Jackson Hastings, Niall Evalds and Ken Sio all also found the try-line in a rampant evening at the Stade Gilbert Brutus for Ian Watson’s men.
It took just eight minutes for the Red Devils to take the lead as Lussick burrowed his way over from acting halfback in almost identical fashion to his tries against Leeds Rhinos and Hull Kingston Rovers earlier in the season. Sio converted.
A real arm-wrestle ensued throughout the first half but Salford were on top and they took their chance to further their lead when Sio slotted a penalty goal after 27 minutes.
As half-time drew closer, Salford turned on the style with two tries in quick succession. Griffin sliced through the Catalans defence to score from close-range before Bibby scored on the hooter. The Dragons put the ball to ground and a sensational pick up from Sio got Salford on the break. Hastings kicked forward for the winger who narrowly missed the ball, but Bibby was on hand to finish a great try. Sio converted the first to give Salford an 18-0 lead at the break.
The Red Devils begun the second half where they left off before the interval as Bibby scored his second try of the evening just one minute after getting back underway. Evalds slid through the Catalans defence from deep before Bibby and Hastings linked up well to allow the centre to score. Sio converted.
Just minutes later, Salford extended their lead even further thanks to a second Griffin try. Bibby’s offload was kicked down field by Evalds and collected by an onrushing Hastings who displayed fantastic vision to find the back-rower who finished under the posts. Sio converted.
Salford’s dominance continued and Hastings went from provider to scorer as he and Bibby again caused issues for the Dragons defence. Hastings weaved around the Catalans defence before finding Bibby who offloaded the ball back to the Australian to score.
Evalds was a constant thorn in the side of the Dragons and he was rewarded with a try of his own a few minutes later. Josh Jones put Lussick through a gap and the hooker tipped onto a pacey Evalds who finishes some flowing Rugby League from the Red Devils. Sio converted to take Salford to the 40-point mark.
It was Sio who would have the final word as he strolled over the try-line and under the Catalans posts after a clever offload from Bibby. The winger converted to round off a truly memorable win for Salford.
 
Salford Red Devils: Evalds, Olpherts, Welham, Bibby, Sio; Lui, Hastings; Dudson, Lussick, Murray, Jones, Turgut, Flanagan.
Interchanges: Burke, Nakubuwai, Griffin, Lawton.
 
Catalans Dragons:Β Tomkins, Yaha, Whitley, Williame, Tierney; Langi, Smith; Casty, McIlorum, Moa, Edwards, Jullien, Baitieri.
Interchanges:Β Bird, Bousquet, Goudemand, Belmas.
 
Salford Tries: Lussick (8), Griffin (38’, 46’), Bibby (40’, 41’), Hastings (46’), Evalds (58’), Sio (78).
Salford Conversions: Sio (9’, 27’, 39’ 42’, 47’, 59’, 79’).
Catalans Tries: N/A.
Catalans Conversions: N/A.
 
Referee: Scott Mikalauskas.

Match Preview | Catalans Dragons vs Salford Red Devils | Saturday 9th March

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

As anticipation builds for Salford’s meeting with Catalan Dragons, here’s everything you need to know ahead of the game this weekend.

Last Time Out

Last Thursday, Salford hosted top of the table St Helens in a 4-26 defeat, with Salford’s only try coming from Derrell Olpherts. Despite the result, it was a positive performance from the Red Devils showing a resilient display against the Saints attack.
Catalan Dragons saw a very close game against Warrington Wolves last Saturday, with Sam Tomkins kicking a match-winning penalty from 45 metres in the final five minutes of the game for the 23-22 victory.
With a reputation of being a hard team to play at home, Catalan had an early advantage from Brayden Wiliame’s try in the second minute of the game. This was followed by a further try from Kenny Edwards after a defensive error on Warrington’s side, with Sam Tomkins securing the conversion both times to bring the score to 12-0 in the first 15 minutes of the game.

Form

Winning three of their five fixtures this season have Salford currently sitting fifth in the table with six points. So far the Red Devils have claimed victory in both away fixtures, putting in impressive performances at Huddersfield and Hull KR.
Salford are currently in the lead for the most attacking kicks (63) of any other team in the league for the 2019 Betfred Super League season and have shown an outstanding defensive display in recent games.
Catalans will be looking for a second home victory tonight after their close 23-22 win over Warrington Wolves last weekend. Steve McNamara’s team have won two of four of their matches this season, with both wins coming from home fixtures.
Currently sitting at seventh in the table with only four games played, the Dragons have the chance to catch up to Salford if they were to come out victorious.

Head-to-head

Salford’s last game against Catalan Dragons saw them leave Stade Gilbert Brutus with a 44-10 defeat; with Salford’s two tries coming from Derrell Olpherts and Josh Wood.
A stadium of 8,672 saw a game that started off on even ground with Fouah Yaha opening the scoring for Catalan. It was Olpherts for Salford who crossed in the 21st minute to bring the Red Devils into the game.
Salford failed to hold off against Catalan’s Jason Baitieri, Kenny Edwards and Yaha, who won three tries in quick succession, with Josh Drinkwater converting two to take the score to 28-4 at half-time.
A try from Josh Wood, followed by a goal from Ed Chamberlain proved not enough to fight back in the second half, as Yaha scored a hat-trick for Catalan. With one further try from Edwards and two goals from Drinkwater.
The 44-10 win for Catalan secured their place in the 2019 Super League.

Team News

Tonight will see goalkicking winger Ed Chamberlain possibly make his first competitive appearance after returning from an injury that saw him miss the early rounds of the 2019 Betfred Super League season. Jake Bibby is also in contention to make his first start of 2019.
Tonight, Catalan will see the return of Greg Bird and Lambert Belmas who will both be making their first appearance of the season.

Squads

Salford:Β Niall Evalds, Ed Chamberlain, Kris Welham, Jake Bibby, Robert Lui, Gil Dudson, Josh Jones, George Griffin, Mark Flanagan, Joey Lussick, Greg Burke, Tyrone McCarthy, Ben Nakubuwai, Logan Tomkins, Daniel Murray, Derrell Olpherts, Ken Sio, Jansin Turgot, Jackson Hastings.
Catalan:Β Brayden Wiliame, Lewis Tierney, Samisoni Lang, Matty Smith, Remi Casty, Micky McIlorum, Sam Moa, Kenny Edwards, Greg Bird, Julian Bousquet, Mika Simon, Benjamin Jullian, Matt Whitley, Mickael Goudemand, Lambert Belmas, Lucas Albert, Jason Baitieri, Fouad Yaha, Sam Tomkins.

Ian Watson | “We want to attack straight from the beginning”

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

As Salford Red Devils head over to France to face Catalan Dragons on Saturday, Head Coach Ian Watson takes a positive mindset in the hope that his side can bring home two points.

On last weekend’s game against St Helens…

I thought there was loads of positives from playing the best team in the competition at the moment, who everyone’s tipped to win the Grand Final. We competed in large parts and for the first 20 minutes of the game we were really good – really good arm wrestle and we were finishing our sets well in that period.
They just maintained theirs a lot longer and continued to finish the sets really well in corners and upped the line speed defensively. They won the field position through the defence – I thought the defence was outstanding on the day.
For us, a lot of positives. We were a hell of a lot better defensively in the second half and started to dominate on the field position. We just needed to do it straight from the start of the game and have that mentality to stay in those arm wrestles with the top teams for longer.

On Salford’s defence…

It’s a big focus for us as a team and for the lads individually. They want to be known for the defence and they want to build a reputation on having good defence, especially on the back of the chase. Its where the teams win the field position on the back of the early tackles.
We’ve spoken about it this year and we know for four halves of football this year we’ve nilled teams which is a big plus for us as a team, where we’re saying that we really want to be represented in our defence.

On this week’s preparations…

We’ve had a great week after a few niggles after the Saints game, which you get after playing against some of the best teams because they’re tough games like that when they’re pretty much an arm wrestle mentality.
Theres a few players that we’ll assess as we go forward on through the week but the early parts of the sessions from Monday into today and Wednesday, we’ve had two great sessions so hopefully we can take that forward now.

On the squad…

We’ll take Adam Lawton with us this time, so he’ll be in the 20-squad that we take over with us. He’s been doing really well at Rochdale so he’ll put competition on our middles, as will Adam Walker.
With us knowing that he’s back the following week will put more pressure on the players to make sure they’re performing and doing their job because Adam’s a known quality middle so we’ll want to feature him as soon as we can once his bans over. It’s up to the boys to go out there and put their best performance out there so they maintain the place for the following week.

On Saturday’s game against Catalan Dragons…

Catalan are a tough team, it’s a tough place to go. Our records not great over there for the past couple of years so we want to go across there with a real positive mindset and attack that straight from the beginning. We want to do that in attack and in defence so we’re looking to go with a positive performance and try and get the win there this year, but we know it’s a real tough ask to do that and we need to be at our best to do it.
It’ll build on the performance of St Helens. I thought St Helens was a really good performance in terms of our attitude and our effort when playing against the top teams. What we need to do is show that against Catalan and show that we can compete against the best teams, week in and week out because Catalan were up there last year and they won the cup. They had a great performance against Warrington last week, so if we can go out there and set our stall out then I think it’ll bode well for the rest of the season.

On the fans…

I think the support has been great this year and the players talk about it as well! I keep talking about the away games because you can consistently hear them all the time. They’re in good voice and they’re really positive and behind the players when they’re at the games.
The home games have been really loud and vocal and it’s good to see more supporters coming through the turnstiles. We’ve always had a good following go to Catalan so hopefully we can reward those fans with a victory this time.

Tickets | Our trip to Catalans Dragons is now on sale

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Tickets are now on sale for Salford Red Devils’ trip to France to take on Catalans Dragons on Saturday 9th March, 6pm kick-off – local time.
You can purchase tickets for this Betfred Super League clash by visiting the The Salford Stadium Ticket Office or over the phone on 0161 786 1570.
With the prices including change we would encourage supporters to bring the right money when purchasing your tickets or pay via card.
Ticket prices for this fixture are as follows:
Adults:Β Β£20
Students:Β Β£8.90
Juniors (U12):Β Β£3.60
Junior Swaps:Β FREE
Tickets for this fixture will be available to book following Thursday’s home fixture against St Helens at the The Salford Stadium. Again, we would like to encourage fans to bring the right money or pay via card.

Stat Pack | Catalans Dragons 44-10 Salford Red Devils

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Following yesterday’s clash with Catalans Dragons in Perpignan, we take a look at some of the stats, facts and figures behind the game.
Player in Focus
It was a tough evening in the South of France for the Red Devils, but Daniel Murray continued to impress with another strong display as he furthers his position in the first team.
Murray was the Red Devils top tackler in tough conditions racking up an impressive 48 tackles throughout the eighty minutes. In fact, of his tackle attempts the forward missed just one and was one of the big performers for Ian Watson’s side.
It was just in defence that Murray was making an impression, but the 22-year-old amounted 81 metres from ten carries – the second highest of any of the Red Devil forwards. Murray also forced a tackle bust and earned two quick play-the-balls.
Youngsters impressing
In his post-match press conference Ian Watson eluded to some youngsters playing more minutes than they possibly would had the Red Devils not been struggling with injuries, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be doing them any harm in terms of the statistics.
In addition to Daniel Murray, Ryan Lannon and Josh Wood also had impressive showings at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.
Lannon was the biggest metre-eater in terms of the Salford pack piling up 103 metres from 11 carries – this was bested by only Derrell Olpherts. The back-rower also made 23 tackles, forced three tackle busts, earned three quick-play-the-balls and made two successful offloads.
Josh Wood – who has named as Man of the Match last weekend against Castleford – backed up with another terrific performance. The hooker crossed for his first try of the 2018 Betfred Super League in the second half after bouncing off two attempted tackles.
Wood – as always – worked tirelessly in defence with 30 tackles whilst scoring a try and earning one try-assist.
Overall stats
There was a big gap between the sides in terms of time with ball in hand. The Dragons had possession for over ten more minutes than the Red Devils which would eventually take its toll. This amounted to 16 more sets with the ball of which Catalans completed 34, Salford completed 16.
On the opposite end this meant Salford had to do a lot more work in defence and in fact made a total of 375 tackles, 128 more than the hosts. Both teams had a 91% tackle rate.
The penalty count was relatively low with the Red Devils conceding four in comparison to the French sides three. However, Catalans did make more offloads, more breaks and less errors which helped them take control of the game.
 
Ready for the Rhinos!
Purchase your tickets for our game with Leeds on Friday 27th July from the Club Ticket Office, on 0161 786 1570 or by simply clicking HERE.

Match Report | Catalans Dragons 44-10 Salford Red Devils

Posted on by Ryan Booth

Four tries from Fouad Yaha condemned Salford Red Devils to a 44-10 defeat, as Catalans Dragons ran out comfortable winners at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.Β 
Scores from Derrell Olpherts and Josh Wood weren’t enough for Salford to salvage any sort of result as a quadruple from in-form winger Yaha, along with two tries from Kenny Edwards and further scores from Jason Baitieri and Josh Drinkwater put the result beyond any doubt.
The hosts were in a rampant mood throughout the afternoon and took just six minutes to open the scoresheet. Brayden Williame broke clear before cleverly offloading out wide to the onrushing Yaha, who raced clear to claim the first of his four scores.
Drinkwater was unsuccessful from the resulting conversion, but he would add a further two points less than 10 minutes later though after landing a 14th minute penalty in front of the sticks.
The Red Devils responded well and offered some fierce tackles in defence, but the resurgence was to last a mere four minutes as Samisoni Langi broke clear of the line before flicking inside to Drinkwater to allow forge an unchallenged score.
Drinkwater added the first of his six goals but Salford’s efforts were to be rewarded almost immediately after. Dan Murray forced a Catalan error to earn Salford possession, before some quick hands from Jake Shorrocks and Wood put the ball on a plate for Olpherts to emphatically finish in the corner.
Ed Chamberlain was unsuccessful from the resulting conversion and things quickly worsened for Ian Watson’s men as Baitieri fought off several Salford defenders before surging over the whitewash.
The level of intensity shown by the hosts reflected the final outcome of the contest, and they found themselves in again for a second quick-fire try when Yaha collected a high ball before flicking inside to Edwards who slid in for the first of his brace.
Unfortunately for Salford, the French side didn’t show any signs of content when Yaha flew over in the corner after Williame picked him out with a scooped pass.
Yaha has been the standout performer throughout the contest, just seven minutes had passed in the second period when 21-year-old made two tries in three minutes to secure a sublime quadruple and round-off a fine individual display.
Salford shows level of grit throughout the second period. Watson introduced Niall Evalds to the action after a nine-week spell on the sidelines, and the 24-year-old was the spearhead of the Red Devils’ attacking plays for the remainder of the tie.
Almost 20 minutes worth of pressure paid dividends midway through the half when Josh Jones produced one of the offloads of the season to enable Wood to spin past the Dragons defence to touch down.
Chamberlain added the extras but the hosts completed the victory with 12 minutes remaining when Edwards touched down for his second, before Drinkwater landed the subsequent goal.
Catalans Lineup:Β Gigot; Tierney, Mead, Wiliame, Yaha; Langi, Drinkwater; Simon, McIlorum, Moa, Jullien, Garcia, Casty.
Interchanges:Β Anderson, Bousquet, Baitieri, Edwards.
Salford Lineup:Β Chamberlain; Bibby, Jones, Sa’u, Olpherts; Lui, Shorrocks; Tasi, Wood, Mossop, Lannon, Nakubuwai, Murray.
Interchanges:Β Evalds, McCarthy, Nzoungou, Burke.
Catalans Scorers:Β Tries-Β Yaha (6′, 38′, 44′, 47′), Drinkwater (18′), Baitieri (32′), Edwards (34′, 68′)Β | Goals-Β Drinkwater (6/9)
Salford Scorers:Β Tries-Β Olpherts (20′), Wood (62′)Β | Goals-Β Chamberlain (1/2)
Man of the Match: Derrell Olpherts
Referee:Β Scott Mikalauskas.
Touch Judges: D. Bowmer & L. Rush.
Video Referee: Robert Hicks.
 

Ed Chamberlain | “We’ve got some things we can work on in the game”

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Ahead of the Red Devils Betfred Super League clash with Catalans Ed Chamberlain – fresh off signing a two-year deal at the Club – gives his thoughts on moving into the fullback role.
Chamberlain is a versatile back who featured mostly in the centres or on the wing for previous club Widnes Vikings but has been composed at the back so far for Salford.
Chamberlain, who is available for sponsorship said: β€œI knew the basics of the position but a lot of it comes down to what the coach wants.
β€œI’ve spoken to Watto [Ian Watson] about what he wants and expects from me in that position and obviously I’m trying my best to do that for him.”
The Dragons have been in terrific form lately with a run of results which has seen them rise from the bottom of the table pre-Easter to now being within touching distance of a top eight spot.
A victory for Catalans on Saturday afternoon would see them seal a place in the Super 8s but this means the pressure is on the French side, feels Chamberlain.
β€œIf they’re going to be in the 8s with a victory there’s going to be a pressure on them to come out, put some points on us and earn that victory.
β€œWe’re going into the game with nothing to lose. We know we’re going to be in the middle 8s so it’s all about performance and improving on last week for us.
β€œThe pressure will be added for them being at home. Catalans always have a good home following and the environment is a little different, it’s a bit hostile.
β€œIf anything goes against Catalans the fans make themselves heard.
β€œCatalans are a big side but so are we and we know we’ve got some things we can work on in the game and a few weaknesses we can work around and hopefully get some success on the back of.”

Ian Watson | “Making sure we build on certain parts of our game”

Posted on by Luke Wallworth

Salford Red Devils Head Coach Ian Watson knows it will be a difficult task in Perpignan against Catalans Dragons but is looking to see some continued improvement from his team.
β€œThey’ve got to win to secure their place in the top eight which they’ll be desperate to do this weekend with it being a home game.
β€œOurs is about making sure we build on certain parts of our game that we’re looking for going into the 8s.
β€œThere’s been things we’ve been really pleased with over the last five weeks – apart from the Hull KR game after the first twenty minutes – but there’s little building blocks we’ve put in place that we know we need to get good before we go into the 8s.”
Watch Ian Watson’s full pre-match interview below:
 

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