Salford head coach Paul Rowley has given a straightforward reaction to Ryan Brierley’s yellow card – it was soft.
Brierley, 30, was sent to the sin-bin by match official Jack Smith in the second half for a ruck infringement. And the full-back was forced to watch from the sidelines as his side conceded three tries, and ultimately lost their lead, in a crucial period of the Round Three fixture.
He returned to the field with his team having found themselves 28-20 down. And it didn’t get any better, conceding two more tries for a 36-20 defeat at full-time.
“I’m straight, I won’t sit on the fence. It was a soft sin-bin,” Rowley said in his post-match press conference.
“I don’t agree with it, quite simply put. I think you can get quite carried away in busy grounds with good home support. We’ve been on the end of that a few times.
“It’s quite exciting when you get another one and the crowd cheers, and then a sin-bin.”
Paul Rowley a proud coach despite defeat
Despite giving away a 20-10 advantage, Rowley remained a proud head coach following the defeat at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
His side are now just one win in three so far in 2023, picking up an opening round victory over Leigh before falling short against Hull KR.
“I’m proud of the effort,” Rowley said.
“I feel really sorry for the players. I felt they deserved more out of the game. We completed high in both halves, in particular the first half when we had an equal share of possession.
“I thought we showed how potent we are as an attacking team, 90 odd percent completion and made three clean breaks in the first four minutes and made about 10 overall in the first half
“The second half, the landslide came. Set restart, penalty, set restart, penalty, et cetera.
“Territory, weight of possession. They’re a quality team and it all contributed to too much pressure defensively and then at the end it can look a little bit ugly. Sheer weight of possession and numbers always take their toll on you.
“I’ve got nothing bad to say about our group. Obviously they’ll be bits that we’re not happy with and bits we’ll improve on, but that’s what the early games do for us.
“We’ve got a good group who will crack on and work hard.”
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