Second-half display not to Tim Sheens’s liking as Hull KR fold

The Red Devils led briefly early on after Rob Lui and Josh Jones scored in quick succession but Hull KR went into the break with a 14-point advantage thanks to tries from Weller Hauraki, Craig Hall, George Lawler and Jimmy Keinhorst.

The game underwent another marked change of fortunes when second-half tries from Derrell Olpherts, Ken Sio and a late one from Joey Lussick pulled the scores level.

Former Hull KR winger Sio then held his nerve to land the match-winning conversion.

We’re all very disappointed,” Sheens said “The problem was that we stopped playing.

“We led the possessions, penalty count, could have led by more and came back out for the second half looking to just do enough to stop Salford from scoring.

“We did nothing in the first 15 minutes of the second half, we threw no shape, didn’t test them at all and they wore us down.

“The turning point was Joel Tomkins’ no try at one end. I’m not going to dispute it, even though Joel thought he got it down.

“All of a sudden they received four or five penalties in a row, they were chasing, so they kept playing.

“We tried to defend the lead and we cannot do that against a big strong side like Salford. They tested us and it came back to haunt us.”

Salford’s third win from their opening four fixtures takes them level on points with early pace-setters Warrington Wolves, Castleford Tigers and St Helens, who are their next opponents on Thursday night.

“We wanted to get off to a good start and now we’ve got St Helens, Catalans and Castleford, so it sets us up nicely,” said Salford coach Ian Watson.

Hull KR: Dagger, Shaw, J. Keinhorst, Linnett, Hall, McGuire, Drinkwater, Mulhern, Lee, Masoe, Tomkins, Hauraki, Lawler. Substitutes: Garbutt, Atkin, Addy, Lannon.

Salford Red Devils: Evalds, Olpherts, Welham, Sa’u, Sio, Lui, Hastings, Mossop, Lussick, Dudson, Jones, Turgut, Griffin. Substitutes:Burke, McCarthy, Tomkins, Murray.

Referee: Liam Moore (RFL).