Saturday 16 August 2014 07:38, UK
Salford coach Iestyn Harris singled out scrum-half Theo Fages for praise after the Red Devils' 34-22 victory over Catalan Dragons.
Kevin Locke scored two tries and kicked three goals for a 14-point haul on his return from injury while Rangi Chase picked up the man of the match award at the AJ Bell Stadium.
But Harris was also keen to highlight the performance of French teenager Fages, who scored one of Salford's six tries.
"Rangi knows our system really well now and is starting to express himself. But Theo was superb alongside him and worked exceptionally hard," he said.
Rangi knows our system really well now and is starting to express himself. But Theo was superb alongside him and worked exceptionally hard.
The Red Devils were coasting to victory - with the other tries coming from Junior Sau, Niall Evalds and Tony Puletua - when they led 34-10 before conceding two late converted scores.
Harris added: "Tony Puletua did well in his stint and Junior Sau was a real handful with the ball. He's (Sau) not quite reached his potential yet but some of our attacking play was very good.
"There was a lot of variation and it's taken a number of weeks to get there. For large parts we were physical and dominant but then dropped off.
"It was disappointing the way we finished but it's important we now end the season on the front foot. If we win the last three we will have won seven of our last nine which is pretty good.
"If that brings us a top-eight place then that's super but we are looking ahead further than that."
The Dragons replied with tries from Michael Oldfield, Greg Mounis, Vincent Duport and Ian Henderson on his 100th appearance, but despite their late charge they were unable to overturn a 22-4 half-time deficit.
Catalan coach Laurent Frayssinous said: "Our first-half performance was very poor. For 15 or 20 minutes we did not defend as a team or work hard enough.
"We showed how good we can be at times in the second half but they were better than us. Rangi was very good and could try whatever he wanted and he had success.
"When he is on fire he is hard to stop and we just watched him. Louis Anderson and Ben Pomeroy were good for us but we need more consistency."
