Brining's Salford edges closer to Wembley final

Scarborough's Kriss Brining is just 80 minutes away from making it to the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup final at Wembley with his Salford Red Devils team.
Wakefield's Keegan Hirst is tackled by Salford's Kriss Brining.Wakefield's Keegan Hirst is tackled by Salford's Kriss Brining.
Wakefield's Keegan Hirst is tackled by Salford's Kriss Brining.

The former Scarborough Pirates junior came off the bench for the Red Devils in their 30-6 quarter-final win at home to Wakefield last night.

The hosts were 12-0 up inside just 13 minutes, Ryan Lannon benefiting after Michael Dobson had possession stripped from him and then Ben Murdoch-Masila starting his torment, ripping through Michael Sio’s attempted tackle after Dean Handley’s offload gifted Salford the ball.

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There was a strange uneasiness about the visitors’ back three, none of whom seemed to want to claim any of Dobson’s or Robert Lui’s high kicks, which caused more mayhem in the ranks.

Dobson added a penalty to the first two of his four conversions and Wakefield did not even get into their rivals’ 20 with the ball until the 25th minute.

This attack amounted to nothing and when they did force a drop-out of their own, Keegan Hirst spilled on the second tackle.

The game was essentially over after Chris Annakin conceded another cheap penalty and Niall Evalds finished off wide out through some paperthin defence in the 35th minute for Dobson to send his side in 20-0 ahead.

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Trinity needed to score first in the second period, but a sublime flick pass from Murdoch-Masila, who was just too strong to handle, saw Greg Johnson extend Salford’s lead in the 43rd minute.

Soon after, former Huddersfield Giants prop Craig Kopczak shrugged off more poor defence to stretch out to score again, the visitors at least avoiding being left pointless when Liam Finn scrambled over for his first try of the season, but that did not come until the 72nd minute.