Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont criticises Salford Red Devils for fielding ‘reserves’ in 82-0 drubbing vs St Helens | Rugby League News

Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont has criticised Salford Red Devils for fielding a ‘reserves’ side in their 82-0 drubbing against St Helens.

Salford only named 16 players for the clash with St Helens following their decision to name ‘predominantly reserve squad players’ in their squad due to ongoing disputes with the RFL regarding salary caps.

Salford entered the match still under a reduced sustainability cap of £1.2m while their new ownership consortium is still pending final approval by the RFL and despite seemingly still having first-team players available under that cap opted to field a team of reserve players, with their three first-teamers of Joe Bullock, Tiaki Chan, and Ben Hellewell on the bench.

The likes of Ryan Brierley, Esan Marsters, and Nene Macdonald featured for Salford last week in the Challenge Cup but the club opted to not play them in the opening Super League fixture.

That led to the side suffering an 82-0 demolition to Saints, with new recruit Tristan Sailor scoring four tries on his Super League debut.

Following the result, Leigh’s Beaumont took to social media to criticise the club for their decision to field only youngsters.

“Complete disrespect from Salford Red Devils to the whole of Super League,” he said.

“It is stakeholders and fans it totally impacts the integrity of the comp! What kind of new owners allow a coach to behave in such a way?

“I feel for those players that put the shirt on and gave their all! They should have told him to put one on himself! Disgraceful!

“Blaming the RFL is totally wrong they knew what they had to do to pick from full squad and didn’t come up with it and have only themselves to blame!