McRae hoping to build on opening win

Monday 15th March 2010

Shaun McRae expects his Salford side to begin a march up the Engage Super League table after the Reds earned their first win of the season with a 26-22 comeback victory at Harlequins.

The visitors were 18-4 down after 50 minutes at the Twickenham Stoop, but fought back well with Steven Tyrer scoring a second-half hat-trick.

"It is a massive relief to get that first win and get off the foot of the table," said McRae. "I am hoping this is the catalyst for us - we have lit the fuse for the season now and it is up to us to carry on the work."

He added: "We have had some good performances against the bigger sides this campaign but did not get anything out of them, so this is a massive confidence boost.

"The key for us was possession - out of the last 15 sets in the game, 10 were ours and that tells you everything."

Quins coach Brian McDermott said afterwards: "I know people will look at the score and see we lost to Salford and be negative about it, but we cannot afford that.

"It was not a case of us throwing it away.

"Salford just got hold of the game with their kicking play and we just could not get away from our line in the second half.

"We did not make some smart decisions and that cost us, but the players will learn from that."