WARRINGTON Wolves have got the new era of Super League off to a winning start.

A 12-0 half-time lead with tries from Richie Myler and Micky Higham rewarded the platform set by the forwards in a ferocious battle that shows Salford Red Devils will be no pushovers this season.

Wolves had to work hard for everything they got in a tenacious battle full of grit and high impact punishment that just about stayed under the boiling point despite two sin-binnings for high tackles.

In the end further tries from Ryan Atkins and Rhys Evans proved too much for a Salford side who responded with a brace from their former Leeds Rhinos winger Ben Jones-Bishop.

A crowd of 11,864 seemed to love every minute of it.

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 Patterson and Gareth Hock.

In among all the tasty confrontations, Wolves full back Stefan Ratchford came to the rescue from breaks by Patterson 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.

Former 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 Asotasi'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 would miss the remainder of the half as well as the opening six minutes of the second period.

Again Salford started the half brightly and the intensity lifted with the return of Sims, Hill, Patterson and Hock, but only after a couple of timely defensive interventions by winger Penny had prevented Salford scoring chances.

Penny also got back to haul down Chase when Salford poured forward in numbers but support men ran away from the dangerous scrum half.

Wolves failed to score during Walne’s absence but soon after his return he was flattened by a sloppy high tackle by Ben Westwood, who took his turn to spend 10 minutes on the sidelines.

Despite being a man short, Wolves stretched their lead when good approach work by Hill gave Gareth O’Brien sufficient time to thread through a perfect kick for Ryan Atkins to pounce. Ratchford’s extras made it 18-0 after 55 minutes.

Wolves fell asleep in defence on the right while Joel Monaghan was tied up in a tackle. Michael Dobson spotted the error and fired out a long pass for Ben Jones-Bishop to cross for an unconverted try in the 59th minute.

The game was sewn up when Gary Wheeler and Monaghan combined to put Rhys Evans over in the 73rd minute, although Ratchford missed with the extras.

Jones-Bishop’s second try in stoppage time made no difference to the outcome.

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.