Super League: Salford Red Devils 12-38 Leeds Rhinos

Jack Broadbent scored the first double of his career to take his season tally to four

Struggling Salford fell to a ninth loss of the season after an ill-tempered defeat to Leeds Rhinos.

Both teams were reduced to 12 men after 16 minutes when Lee Mossop and Bodene Thompson were sent off for punching.

Leeds scored seven tries to dominate Salford, with two Richie Myler scores in two minutes at the end of the first half putting them in firm control.

It was Leeds' first game since 28 May after a Covid-19 outbreak had forced them to postpone their past two games.

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The Rhinos called upon four of the five players who had featured 48 hours earlier in the England v Combined All Stars game, while Salford duo Ken Sio and Pauli Pauli were both left out of the Red Devils squad.

The game's controversial moment came just after a quarter-of-an-hour when Mossop punched Konrad Hurrell to the ground after the Tongan had taken exception to a tackle from the former England international.

Thompson was shown red for running in and punching Mossop, and Hurrell's match was also brought to a premature end as he failed his subsequent head injury assessment.

Jack Broadbent gave the Richard Agar's Rhinos the lead soon after before Jack Wells was sin-binned for a high tackle to leave the hosts down to 11 men.

Tom Briscoe crossed to extend the visitors' lead to 10-0, but Chris Atkin picked up an intercept to run in from 80 yards and get the home side on the scoreboard.

That gave Salford some impetus and it was a surprise when they chose to go for two through Dec Patton's kick when awarded a penalty.

Leeds made the most of that reprieve and Myler crossed twice in the final two minutes of the half to see them take a 22-8 lead into the interval.

Another brawl in backplay at the start of the second half saw both teams reduced to 11 men when Ryan Lannon was sin-binned for the Red Devils, and Gale was shown a yellow for the visitors.

Teenager Broadbent scored his second try before Kruise Leeming and Luke Gale, who like Mikolaj Oledzki and Matt Prior were playing for the second time in less than 48 hours, added to the Leeds' advantage.

Escare's wonderful late solo try gave Salford fans something to cheer at the end of the game, but they have now won just two of their 11 matches this season and stayed 11th, while a fourth win of the campaign moved Leeds up to eighth.

Salford coach Richard Marshall:

"At times I thought we were ill-disciplined. It was a mess of a game. I think Leeds took their opportunities and we didn't build any pressure.

"It's tough to take. We thought Leeds were there for the taking.

"You have got to deal with what's in front of you. It wasn't a good spectacle for our fans - we are in a dogfight and we need to keep fighting."

On Mossop's red card: "Hurrell ran after him, Mossop was defending himself. It was an act of self-defence in my opinion. There was nothing in the contact of the tackle."

Leeds Rhinos coach Richard Agar:

"I am pleased to get the win and I thought we shared the workload really well.

"The referee was brought into the game rightly or wrongly, but I thought we handled playing with 11 and 12 men okay. We showed a terrific desire defensively.

"In the first half we felt we were on top and making headway, but we spilled a few balls and felt we let Salford back in the game. I knew if we could eradicate those errors, it was a game we could win comfortably."

Salford: Lolohea, Escare, Burgess, Costello, Williams, Patton, Atkin, Mossop, Ackers, Wells, Livett, Roberts, Taylor.

Interchanges: Ormondroyd, Johnson, Lannon, Luckley.

Leeds: Myler, L. Briscoe, Hurrell, T. Briscoe, Broadbent, Leeming, Gale, Thompson, Martin, Mellor, Prior, Dwyer, Oledzki.

Interchanges:Holroyd, Vuniyayawa, Gannon, Donaldson.

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