WOLVES head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith was impressed with an aspect of his team’s defence in the 22-8 defeat of Salford Red Devils on the opening day of the 2015 Super League season.

After nilling both Widnes Vikings and Hull Kingston Rovers in pre-season friendlies, it took Salford until midway through the second period to finally break Wolves’ resistance.

“It was the 58th minute, when we were down to 12 men, before they scored and that showed some signs of our commitment and dedication to our try line,” said Smith.

“They broke us a couple of times but we managed to cover it up. Our scrambling defence was outstanding.

“If you’re going to accept conceding a try, conceding right in the corner with 12 men would be the type you’d accept.

“Unfortunately we conceded one more if those but if you watch it, Stefan Ratchford (full back) was in our left corner on the tackle before and he almost saved it in the right-hand corner so that again shows the team’s commitment.

“He stopped a couple of tries in the first half and Kevin Penny caught the eye on a few too with the tries he saved.

“Whilst ever we have got that from the team, it’s going to make us a hard team to beat.”

He seemed pleased with the way Wolves dealt with the considerable change thrown at them by Salford but would have liked to have seen his team start the second half better than they did.

“I thought we were a bit loose with the ball,” he said.

“I think we thought we could score a whole heap more points early in the half rather than getting back into the arm wrestle that we needed to get into.

“Salford had a real dig and we knew they would. You could tell they were targeting us. They’ve been talking about us for a while now.

“Any team after having a full pre-season of working hard targets the first game and they were under pressure from their chairman right from the first game that they need to have a big season and that every minute counts.

“It was good that they had a dig. It was good, tough, hard footy in that first 20-25 minutes and it took us some time to break them down.

“Once we got through that arm wrestle I thought we came up with a couple of really classy tries and looked a better team by the end of the first half.”