Salford rely on late rally to survive Toulouse barrage
Salford 26 Toulouse 1
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Your support makes all the difference.Salford progressed into the fourth round of the Challenge Cup, but they were given a scare before rousing themselves to make this tie safe in the last 10 minutes.
The Reds were the first side to foster the code in France with their tour their almost 70 years ago. Briefly, at The Willows yesterday, it looked as though the delayed thank you for that gesture might be ejection from the Cup.
Salford had been cruising at half time, but allowed Toulouse, whose overtures for membership of Super League were rejected last week, to dominate a stormy second half.
The French exerted almost constant pressure without being able to make inroads into Salford's 10-point lead, but after Toulouse's James Wynne and Salford's Lee Marsh had been sent to the sin bin, they got their breakthrough.
Another of their Australians was responsible, their full back, Dave Mulholland going through Danny Arnold's tackle and scrambling over the line. With Julien Gerin's goal, Toulouse were only four points behind and had all the momentum behind them.
But Salford, fielding seven close season signings and lacking in co-ordination, took that as their wake up call. With nine minutes to play, two of their newcomers combined, with Simon Baldwin setting up Cliff Beverley.
Four minutes later, Gavin Clinch's pass put Jason Flowers over for his second try and Toulouse's only remaining defiance came in a couple of late mêlées, the first of which saw the rival props, Neil Baynes and Olivier Pramil, sent to the bin.
"It was disappointing, because with 10 minutes to go I thought the momentum was swinging our way," said the Toulouse player-coach Justin Morgan, kept off the field himself by injury.
His side could have used his steadying influence early on, when Flowers put Salford ahead after two minutes following good build up work by Malcolm Alker and Radney Bowker.
Toulouse hit back when Wynne and Brad Kelly set up Ludovic Perolari, but tries from Alan Hunte and Stuart Littler seemed to have set Salford on their way.
"I though we played poorly," admitted their coach Karl Harrison, "We had a great start, but we took our foot off the gas. We can't afford to do that this season if we want to get straight back into Super League."
Salford: Flowers; Hunte, Littler, Beverley, Arnold; Bowker, Clinch; Coley, Alker, P Highton, Baldwin, Lowe, Marsh. Substitutes: Charles, D Highton, Gorski, Baynes.
Toulouse: Mulholland; Perolari, Zitter, Kelly, Couturier; Gerin, Wynne; Pramil, Leib, Rodriquez, Amigas, Raguin, Robinson. Substitutes: Gay, Delpoux, Frayssinet, Estebanez.
Referee: C Morris (Huddersfield)
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