The second week of action in the new Super League XXVIII season begins on Thursday night when the surprise packages of the last two campaigns meet at the AJ Bell Stadium when the Salford Red Devils host Hull KR.
Both teams made winning starts to their season in the opening round of games so the early pace will be set by whoever comes out on top in this one. Both should be confident after that win which should make for a decent game.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Arena channel with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm and the match kicking off at 8pm.
Salford Red Devils
I think it is fair to say that the Salford Red Devils won’t have been entirely happy with the lack of fluency they had in their win over the Leigh Leopards last week but when you strip it all back that was a dangerous fixture to be involved in as there is always an element of the newly promoted team being on a bit of a high. It was one of those where in many ways Salford couldn’t really win so they will be delighted to have got out with the two points.
I would imagine they will be looking for better in terms of combinations in an offensive performance in this match. That will come when their combinations get up to speed. What will have impressed Paul Rowley last week was the last-ditch defence his side showed. Last season that was perceived to be a weakness of their game but they looked in decent order in that department last week, albeit you sense tougher tests are to come.
Hull KR
If you had asked Willie Peters what the perfect first game in charge of a new team looked like it would probably have been something like the one his team delivered in the win over Wigan Warriors on Saturday. That comes with positives and negatives. The positive was that they knocked off a top level opponent but the negative is that they have had a day less to recover and go again, although that might be more of an issue later in the season than now.
Hull KR looked good in attack last week which will encourage them here. They even overcame the early loss of Ryan Hall down their left flank and still came out on top. One area of concern might be the way they defended kicks against Wigan. Their defence is likely to be put under pressure in that department here given how well the Salford halves kick the ball so they are going to need to step up to the plate much more positively here.
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Team News
Salford Red Devils have winger Joe Burgess back in their squad for this match after he missed the opening game due to injury. He is expected to replace Ryan Williams out on the wing in an otherwise unchanged side.
Hull KR will be forced into three changes to their side for this second game of the season. Lachlan Coote, Ryan Hall and Rhys Kennedy are all out with injury. Louis Senior and Sam Luckley could make their debuts for the Robins.
Betting
I like Salford Red Devils this season but I’m not entirely convinced I like them to cover a 10 point start. I accept that the injuries to Ryan Hall and Lachlan Coote make Hull KR weaker but Louis Senior and presumably Will Dagger are adequate replacements. I didn’t see much in the combinations of the Salford side last week that suggests they are going to run away against a team who have given them no shortage of problems in recent times.
Hull KR looked good last week before and after the Ryan Hall injury and that was with Mikey Lewis not really having a major impact on the match. Hull KR have won the last four matches against Salford and run up 40 points in two of those matches. They were at Craven Park but even here last season they came out on top 26-16. I thought Salford would really hit the ground running last week but they looked like they need another couple of weeks for their combinations to hit top speed. That doesn’t mean they can’t win here but there was more than enough about Hull KR to like last week and I’ll back them to stay within 10 here.
Tips
Back Hull KR (+10) to beat Salford Red Devils for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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