A SMASH, bang wallop of an opening first half of the season has been edged by Warrington Wolves against Salford Red Devils.

Salford made the early running during a feisty opening that saw aggressive collisions between Warrington’s Ashton Sims and Ben Westwood with Salford’s Cory Paterson and Gareth Hock.

In among all the tasty confrontations, Wolves full back Stefan Ratchford came to the rescue from breaks by Paterson and Josh Griffin – the latter with the centre heading to the corner flag after cleaning up Kevin Penny’s spill of a high bomb.

In response, powerful forward charges from Chris Hill and Ben Currie paved the way for an opening to be worked on Wolves’ right but Rhys Evans’ last pass went slightly behind Joel Monaghan and the chance went begging.

One thrilling 50-metre dash by Penny came to nothing when the ball was lost on the next tackle as the game started to open up a little.

Busy Salford sub Adam Walne was held up over the line from a powerful charge and moments later Wolves went ahead.

For Salford players Ratchford and Richie Myler combined for the full back to break and send the scrum half racing home from 40 metres. And with Ratchford converting, it was 6-0 after 27 minutes.

Micky Higham and Roy Asotasi joined the action and both men played their part in the next score five minutes later.

Higham, who had just needed treatment for an eye injury, burrowed over from dummy half after Asotas’s play-the-ball two metres from the line. Again Ratchford converted.

After Salford were put on a team warning for persistent high tackling, Walne found himself in the sin bin for testing Richard Silverwood’s patience one time too often and will miss the opening six minutes of the second half.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Rhys Evans, Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins, Kevin Penny; Gareth O’Brien, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, James Laithwaite, Ben Currie, Ben Westwood. Subs: Ben Harrison, Micky Higham, Roy Asotasi, Gary Wheeler.

Salford Red Devils: Niall Evalds; Ben Jones-Bishop, Josh Griffin, Mason Caton-Brown, Greg Johnson; Rangi Chase, Theo Fages; Scott Taylor, Tommy Lee, Gareth Hock, Harrison Hansen, Weller Hauraki, Cory Paterson. Subs: Michael Dobson, Adrian Morley, Darrell Griffin, Adam Walne.

Referee: Richard Silverwood.