Salford stun Huddersfield despite sending off of Lama Tasi

Salford overcame the dismissal of Lama Tasi for a late tackle on Danny Brough to record their best win of a mostly troubled season, and one that suggested much better times really could lie ahead next year.

Huddersfield’s coach, Paul Anderson, accused Tasi of “a cheap shot” that felled Brough in the 60th minute, forcing the Man of Steel to leave the field clutching his jaw, and suggested that it was not an isolated incident. “My disappointment is that when Broughy, Eorl [Crabtree] and Robbo [Luke Robinson] got knocked over our blokes didn’t rip in and knock 10 bells out of the bloke that did it,” growled the former Great Britain prop. “One cheap shot deserves another.”

Iestyn Harris, for whom this was comfortably the most significant result since succeeding Brian Noble as Salford’s coach in April, was unapologetic.

“The policy is that we’re physical,” he said. “That’s the policy of any team I’ll ever coach. I want them to be aggressive and dominant. The byproduct of that is that you do hurt people at times – that’s the game of rugby league.”

Harris is clearly determined to rid Salford of the reputation as big-spending fancy dans that has been attached to them since the failure of the substantial investment of their owner, Dr Marwan Koukash, to deliver a significant improvement in performances. But they also played some sparkling rugby with each of their two debutants, Kevin Locke and Mason Caton-Brown, scoring a long-range try.

Caton-Brown’s was crucial, as the 21-year-old from north London, who was tempted north by Koukash and Harris after an impressive debut season in a struggling Broncos team, outpaced the England centre Leroy Cudjoe for a third Salford try in the 50th minute that extended their lead to 18-4 by the time Tasi was sent off.

Even with a man extra the Giants, who had won nine of their previous 10 games, were unable to stem the tide, with Salford adding three further tries through Locke – the former New Zealand Warriors full-back, who also kicked six goals – the lively right-wing Greg Johnson, and Théo Fages, who made his own small contribution to the French influence on Yorkshire this weekend.

There was one more bizarre incident near the end of an entertaining game as Tasi’s presence in the dug-out, where he had already received a verbal volley from Brough, so enraged an ageing Giants supporter that he engaged in a water fight with Gareth Hock, Salford’s injured England forward. Brave man.

The defeat means Huddersfield slip two points behind the three teams in joint third in the table, of whom Wigan boosted their points difference with a 58-6 romp against London Broncos at The Hive.

Josh Charnley scored a hat-trick and there were two tries for Wigan’s other wing Joe Burgess as the champions bounced back from last week’s home defeat by St Helens to leave the Broncos with only eight more matches to avoid becoming the first team in the Super League’s 19-year history to go through a full season without earning a point.