Jon Wilkin reaffirms Salford criticism and insists they ’embarrassed the game’ with RFL defence offered

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has reaffirmed his criticism towards Salford Red Devils’ actions over the past week: insisting they tried to ’embarrass the game’ with their squad selection against St Helens.

The Red Devils remain subject to Rugby Football League restrictions as they wait for clearance on their takeover from an overseas investment group.

Their decision to field their reserves last week against St Helens attracted huge criticism, not least from Wilkin, who said the club were ‘throwing their teddies out of the pram’.

And Wilkin, speaking on Sky Sports’ The Verdict, has once again attacked the club for the way they conducted themselves. He insisted he ‘deplores’ Salford’s behaviour and believes that the club will regret their actions.

Wilkin said: “I say it again, what they tried to do is embarrass the game by fielding such a weak team and I think it was irresponsible to do so.

“They put young players in who are not physically developed against serious professional athletes and I thought it was a bad look for the sport, a bad look Paul Rowley, and a bad look the game.

“It’s accepted in the game that you rest players before big games. I’ve never known it acceptable for that to happen in Round One, and when the week before Paul had fielded a team to the value of £1.2million on the pitch. He’d already done it the week before and he chose not to here.”

Wilkin also defended the RFL for their due-diligence processes, with the verification of the club’s new ownership group still ongoing: meaning restrictions remain in place.

He said: “Salford cannot afford the squad they’ve got. To caveat that, some investment is coming, it’s from overseas, those people are being vetted and because it’s overseas investment, that takes time.

“As it stands, that money or investment, there is no basis as to whether that’s valid or not. So I applaud for the RFL for being strong and solid and consistent and I deplore Salford’s behaviour. I think they’ll reflect on this and Paul Rowley will reflect on this and regret it.

“It’s a mess. Salford have had a few cashflow issues, they were placed in special measures and were bailed out by the fans. They asked for £500k advance on their TV money because of the crisis they were in. To put it simply, Salford have been living beyond their means for some time and the RFL had no choice but to impose a sustainability cap on them.”

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