Salford met French side Catalans Dragons for their penultimate home game of the season. The Dragons have had their own trials and tribulations in 2025, nothing on the scale of the Salford saga though. 

It had been another week of drama for the Red Devils with Kurt Haggerty leaving the club. Kurt has been Paul Rowley’s assistant and right hand man. The two have formed a formidable partnership and it’s definitely a big loss to the club.

The visitors have a number of players moving on at the end of the season. It feels like their club is going through what they call in sport as a transitional phase. New coach Sam Tomkins has got plenty of work to do in the autumn.

The Dragons started with Romain Navarrette at prop, Alrix Da Costa at hooker and the evergreen Ben Garcia in the back row. Cesar Rouge and Ugo Tison were the halfbacks.

The Salford starting thirteen looked very similar to last Friday. Esan Marsters returned from injury but Jayden Nikorima missed out through injury. Rowan Milnes and Joe Mellor contributed in the halves with Sam Davis at hooker. Emmanuel Waine returned on loan and made the bench.

Salford started on the front foot looking well organised in defence and very industrious with the ball. A super break from Mellor set Nathan Connell on the gallop and he finished acrobatically in the corner. No try was the on field decision and after a good long perusal the video referee agreed.

Young Jack Darbyshire came up with some excellent work in defence to force a Dragons knock on. This provided Salford with an attacking chance in good territory. Leon Ruan produced a lovely offload and Darbyshire scored the try. 

The young centre on loan from Leigh looks a very special player. He’s got pace, a good step and reads the game so well. 

Milnes converted well from quite a distance, 6-0.

Guillermo Aispuro-Birchet scored for the Dragons but the conversion was missed, 6-4.

Salford continued to work well in defence and looked very solid again on the edges. They forced another mistake out of the visitors and this time took full advantage. The ball went left and Neil Tchamanbe scored a nice try. Milnes pulled the conversion wide, 10-4.

What happened next really changed the course of the match. The Dragons kicked off and Emmanuel Waine returned the ball like a high speed train running at full tilt. He hit the Dragons wall of defence and fell heavily flat on his back. He didn’t move and credit to the medical staff who rushed on to help him. The game stopped for a good ten minutes while Waine received treatment. It’s always very concerning to see injuries like this. He did look to move his hands which is always a positive sign. Waine was stretched off and taken straight to hospital. In the aftermath of the incident Franck Maria was shown the red card. This really seemed to take the sting out of Salford for the remaining few minutes of the half. The two sides went in for half time with the home supporters very vocal and upset about the injury to Waine.

The Dragons pack begun to get on top in the early stages of the second half. Salford struggled to gain any momentum and were bogged down in their own half for long spells. Substitute Jordan Dezaria powered over from close range in the fifty third minute and the successful conversion levelled the match at 10-10.

The Red Devils needed a break and got a chance when Tchamambe forced a drop out. A controversial captains challenge went against Salford and this allowed the Dragons to gain some breathing space. 

The visitors took the lead when Denive Balmforth scored. A big final ten minutes would define the match as Salford threw everything they had at the back peddling Dragons. Declan Murphy went on a mazy run towards the line but was tackled just short. The pressure cranked up again when Milnes forced another drop out before Dan Russell was agonisingly denied a try by the video referee.

With five minutes remaining Tison dropped a goal to make the game safe but Salford refused to give in. Russell got a superb offload out of the tackle but Marsters couldn’t quite hold on. With lots of chances going begging the Devils just weren’t clinical enough on the night. 

As the final hooter sounded Salford’s desire was summed up in a wonderful passage of play. A kick to the in goal looked far too strong for Darbyshire to touch down but instead his brilliant piece of skill saw him knock the ball back for Tchamambe to score his second try of the night. Milnes conversion was successful but Tison’s drop goal ended up being the defining moment of the match.

It was another huge effort from the Devils and the supporters once again applauded a very valiant performance.

Salford travel to Huddersfield next Sunday before facing Wakefield the following week for their final match of 2025.

Salford 16 Catalans 17.

Paul Whiteside.

Big thanks to Steve McCormick for the photos.