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ROBBIE Paul kisses the Northern Rail Cup after rubber-stamping his reputation for being a big-game player with a mercurial display. Pictures by Bill McLaughlin
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Salford City Reds 60 Doncaster 0
Dave Lawrenson10/ 7/2008
SALFORD coach Shaun McRae challenged his players to produce their best performance of the season in Sunday’s cup final – and they didn’t let him down.
It was a masterclass of hard running, clever passing, sensational support play and rock solid defending as the Reds made it two trophy wins from two Northern Rail Cup campaigns.
They first lifted the cup with a 31-14 success against Leigh in 2003. But this time they did it in style!
The 10-try rout at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road ground represented the biggest ever Northern Rail Cup final win. Doncaster’s ‘nilling’, Paul White’s hat-trick and John Wilshere’s 10 goals were also Northern Rail Cup final records. And the landmark feats were no more than Salford deserved.
They may have been playing inferior opposition in lower league Doncaster but you can’t take anything away from the way that Salford performed.
All 17 Reds rose to the occasion as an ultra committed Salford side tormented Doncaster’s defence all afternoon and scored some truly wonderful tries. But try scorers White (3), official man of he match Richard Myler (2), Robbie Paul, Karl Fitzpatrick, Craig Stapleton and Adam Sidlow plus skipper Malc Alker were particularly impressive.
All of them would have been worthy man of the match award winners following heroic displays.
But this reporter would have given it to Kiwi star Paul.
He proved in his glory days with Bradford and New Zealand that he is a man for the big occasion. And the 33-year-old certainly rolled back the years on Sunday despite being unable to train in the build up to the big game due to a stomach bug.
He used his pace, trickery and legendary eye for an opening to set up several Salford scores.
Paul also shone in defence, as did the rest of Salford’s players.
Doncaster are no mugs and they tried pretty much every trick in the book in an attempt to get over Salford’s whitewash.
But, with Salford hardly missing a tackle all game, you couldn’t see the Dons scoring if the game had carried on until midnight.
The Reds have been criticised this season for failing to deliver 80-minute performances. But that was certainly not the case on Sunday. They flew out of the blocks, scoring three tries in the opening 15 minutes. And they kept their foot on the gas until the referee put Doncaster out of their misery by blowing the final whistle.
On this form and with the Northern Rail Cup in the bag, National League One table-toppers Salford surely deserve to be one of the teams handed a Super League licence for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons. The players are doing their jobs well. Let’s just hope that those who make the licensing decisions do the same.
Team: Fitzpatrick; Gardner, Littler, Wilshere, White; Paul, Myler; Sidlow, Alker, Stapleton, Bannister, Adamson, Turner. Subs used: Highton, Ratchford, Sibbit, Leuluai. Tries: Fitzpatrick, Stapleton, Myler (2), Sibbit, White (3), Sidlow, Paul. Goals: Wilshere (10). Attendance: 6,328.
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9/07/2008 at 21:06
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