Red Devils and Rhinos meet at AJ Bell in ‘War of the wounded’

Not too long ago, Salford Red Devils and Leeds Rhinos were appearing in Grand Finals at Old Trafford. But this year’s Super League campaign has been far from those heights for both teams. The pair will meet at the AJ Bell Stadium on Sunday in Round 11.

Hosts this weekend – Salford – had been glancing over their shoulders towards the relegation zone for the opening stage of this season and still sit 11^th, preceded only by the winless Leigh Centurions. Richard Marshall’s Red Devils do have four points on the board now, but up until last weekend, they had just two which came from a win against the Centurions.

Chris Atkin’s drop goal at Huddersfield Giants proved to be the difference last time out, earning Salford an invaluable win by a scoreline of 9-8, and allowed them to look up the table towards the team’s chasing the play-off spots, rather than down.

One of those play-off chasers is Leeds, led by Head Coach Richard Agar, and it’s fair to say that the Rhinos have had a tough time of it of late. They sit eighth with six points, though have only played eight games having had numerous fixtures called off recently due to a Coronavirus outbreak at the club’s training ground.

Consequently, the last time that Agar’s men stepped out onto the field was on May 28 away at fellow Yorkshire side Castleford Tigers. On that occasion, Leeds did prevail and came away from the Mend-A-Hose Jungle with a thumping 6-60 victory, but by the time they enter the pitch at Salford on Sunday, it will have been 30 days since that win.

Squads

This fixture was originally scheduled to take place on Friday evening at the same time as England’s mid-season International friendly against the Combined Nations All Stars. That was until Leeds were forced to submit a request to the powers that be to push the league fixture back, so that their players involved in the International tie could then be made available for selection again on Sunday.

In his pre-match press conference, Rhinos boss Agar said if the game had gone ahead as originally scheduled, Leeds would have been missing around 16 players in total – long-term injuries, COVID absentees and Internationals combined – so wouldn’t have been able to fulfil the fixture.

That may well show in his squad selection too, with all five Internationals from the Leeds ranks – Luke Gale, Ash Handley, Mikolaj Oledzki (England), Kruise Leeming and Matt Prior (All Stars) – having been named in Agar’s squad for the trip to Salford.

Aside from this, COVID is still affecting this weekend’s visitors with both Zane Tetevano and Liam Sutcliffe absent as they complete the necessary ‘return to play’ protocols following the outbreak at the club. In the squad, they are replaced by youngsters Corey Hall and Tom Holroyd. The latter of those – 20-year-old Holroyd – is set to make his first appearance of the campaign having suffered a fracture to his leg in pre-season.

In the opposition’s squad, things aren’t much better either. They also have players involved in the International clash on Friday night that have also been named in the 21-man squad for Sunday’s Super League game, though fortunately not as many. Ken Sio and Pauli Pauli are the only two internationals and are both playing for the Combined Nations All Stars team but could feature at the AJ Bell just 48 hours later.

Having been named in Richard Marshall’s Red Devils squad, Australian Pauli is one of five changes in total from last week’s triumph at Huddersfield. Tui Lolohea, Danny Addy, Matt Costello and Darcy Lussick also return. The last of those – Lussick – has just returned from a short-term loan out to Championship highflyers Featherstone Rovers.

Of course, five going into the squad means that five must come out. Both Dan Sarginson (3 games) and Greg Burke (1 game) are serving suspensions for high tackles, James Greenwood (achilles) and Sebastine Ikahihifo (ankle) are absent through injury while St Helens loanee Ben Davies also misses out, though no explanation has been given for his absence.

Nothing has been confirmed by either Saints or the Red Devils, but Davies joined Salford on June 8 on an initial two-week loan deal. Unless an extension has been sought, and despite impressing for Marshall’s men in his short time there, it is understood that the 21-year-old will have returned to his parent side.

Head-to-Head

The list of fixtures between these two sides which could be looked back on is endless, but for the sake of fairness, we’re going to assess the last ten meetings which dates back to September 2017, a resounding 44-2 win for the Rhinos at home after the league had completed the annual ‘split’.

The result in terms of wins in the last ten clashes with Salford does also fall the way of the Yorkshire outfit, by an aggregate score of 7-3, including last season’s Challenge Cup Final victory at Wembley by the finest of margins. A Luke Gale drop goal close to the end of the game separated the sides 17-16 come the final hooter and broke Red Devils’ hearts in the process, on what was their first-ever trip to the new Wembley.

As it happens, that was actually the last time that the two sides met, and for the last Salford win against Sunday’s opponents you have to go back a little under two years to September 2019. A 12-20 win away at Leeds’ Emerald Headingley Stadium occurred on the penultimate round of the season, helping to secure a third-place finish and eventually a first-ever Grand Final appearance for the Salfordians.

If play-off hopes are to be achieved by either this campaign, then a win on Sunday is a must to start climbing up the league table. Given the two squads, however, and their respective players’ involvement in Friday’s International fixture, there is a feeling that it really could be a ‘War of the walking wounded’ at the AJ Bell Stadium. 

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