Super League: Huddersfield Giants 14-34 Salford Red Devils

Niall Evalds scored three second-half tries for Salford

A hat-trick from Niall Evalds set Salford up for a comfortable victory at injury-hit Huddersfield.

The visitors had the better of the first half and tries from Junior Sa'u and Ken Sio gave them an 8-2 lead at the interval.

Giants debutant Akuila Uate crossed to level but Evalds' quick-fire double took the game away from the hosts.

Sio crossed for his second and Evalds completed his treble before Kruise Leeming's consolation for Huddersfield.

However, Salford rightly had the final say when Derrell Olpherts went over in the final act of the match to round off a comprehensive win.

Huddersfield battled well throughout despite missing eight first-team players, but they could not recover from Evalds' two tries in three minutes.

The visitors scored six second-half tries in a dominant performance that will give their fans hope for a better showing than 2018, when they lost 16 of their 23 regular-season games.

They host promoted London Broncos next Sunday, while Huddersfield visit France to play Catalans Dragons on Saturday.

Huddersfield head coach Simon Woolford: "We were just nowhere near good enough. It was really disappointing.

"You're not going to win if you defend like we did. What was really bad about it was that Salford scored so many tries of a similar fashion and we just didn't learn from that as the game went on.

"Yes, it was a blow to lose like we did on day one, but we certainly won't be hitting the panic button."

Salford coach Ian Watson said: "I'm obviously delighted with the way it went. To be honest, it couldn't have gone much better for an opening day.

"But while I'm happy, I also know there's still a great deal of improvement in us, which I suppose makes this win even more encouraging.

"You can tell it's helped that everyone had a full pre-season behind them and that's given us a firm foundation on which we intend to build.

"Our combinations looked great and the spine of the team was there and doing a great job straight away."

Huddersfield: Grix, McIntosh, Turner, J. Wardle, Uate, Farrell, Frawley, English, O'Brien, Matagi, Roberts, Mellor, Lawrence.

Replacements: Leeming, Ikahihifo, Walne, Hewitt.

Salford: Evalds, Olpherts, Welham, Sa'u, Sio, Lui, Hastings, Mossop, Lussick, Dudson, Jones, Turgut, Flanagan.

Replacements: Griffin, Burke, Nakubuwai, Tomkins.

Referee: Liam Moore (RFL).