Salford's Harrison finds positives in first defeat

Karl Harrison, the new Salford coach, was far from discouraged by their 24-2 defeat at Castleford Tigers yesterday. After his first game in charge of the bottom club in Super League, Harrison said: "I knew it was a big job. We did not get beaten today through lack of effort.

"I thought we were very enthusiastic and tried very hard all afternoon. We defended reasonably well for long periods and probably had enough ball to win three games.

"A little bit of structuring needs putting in place. You can't work miracles in a week."

Then two tries in the last 13 minutes from loose-forward Ryan Hudson and winger Jon Wells, with his second, finally saw off the Reds.

Widnes continued their remarkable away run as the Halifax old boy Adam Hughes returned to sink his former club at The Shay yesterday.

Hughes, released by the Blue Sox at the end of last season, landed five kicks out of five to keep Vikings in sixth place with a 25-16 win. It was Widnes's sixth win in seven Super League away games. Their coach Neil Kelly was a relieved man. "Our worst performance this season was the home defeat against Halifax and our players were very keen to right that wrong," he said.

Steve Linnane, the Halifax coach,was less than happy. "We missed far too many tackles, 39 in the whole game, and you cannot win Super League games with a record like that," he said. "Some individuals need to have a long look at themselves this week."

On Saturday, Wigan were once more indebted to their captain Andy Farrell as they beat Hull 31-24 at The Boulevard. It dislodged Hull from fourth place at the halfway stage of campaign.

Hull twice clawed back eight-point deficits to level the scores but Farrell had the final say with a deadlock-breaking drop goal and an injury-time try.

The Great Britain captain, who will lead Lancashire in the Origin games against Yorkshire, finished with 19 points thanks to two tries, five goals and the crucial drop goal.

Yorkshire will be captained by the Leeds scrum-half Ryan Sheridan for the Series that gets under way at Wigan's JJB Stadium on Friday.

Castleford's Russell Smith will referee the first Origin match, with Steve Ganson, from St Helens, taking charge of the return game at Headingley on 18 June.