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Red Devils Women win 0-80 as McKeown scores seven in just her fourth game of league

By on in Rugby League, Salford Red Devils, Sport

Salford Red Devils’ Women notched up 14 tries in a dominant 0-80 win over Featherstone Lionesses in the League Cup.

Fullback Luci McKeown captured the headlines scoring 28 of the 80 points with a staggering seven tries while Steph Gray and Demi Jones also picked up two tries apiece.

Louise Fellingham also got on the scoresheet with Lauren Ellison and Olivia Miah completing the try scorers.

When asked if the 0-80 scoreline fairly reflected the game, Red Devils Women’s captain Louise Fellingham said, “It did but we can definitely play a lot better which we showed in the second half.

“What we want to get into our mentality is are we a good team or a great team? So I guess if you look at the score the first half seemed easy but we still wanted to up our performance and so after the second half I think we deserved the scoreline we put on”.

Louise also expressed her delight at dotting down one of the fourteen tries saying, “I set myself a target at the start of the season so it is always great to score.

“But that try in particular Luci (McKeown) could have scored herself and Vanessa (Hadley) was about a foot behind me aswell. As tries go it was pretty impressive.”

When asked about the seven-try-star McKeown, Fellingham was beaming with pride for the new recruit, even dropping the shocking revelation that the new fullback has played just three-and-a-half competitive games of rugby league. She said, “After just three-and-a-half games of league to be putting in the numbers that she is putting in, but not even just the try scoring, she does the hard work aswell.

“As performances go it was pretty good.”

The Red Devils Women are now two wins from two in the League Cup and Fellingham is confident that the team can go all the way in their debut season, she said “If we play to the best of our ability then it would be silly for us not to have that as a goal. You’ve got to set yourself targets in a season and although it is our first season we are heading in the right direction.”

“We have only played a handful of games together but the signs are there that we can play some good rugby. We are going to have tougher tests but I would like to think we can have a good go at anybody.”

Star fullback McKeown will no doubt have her name in the match reports for weeks to come, having scored more tries than she has played games. She came to England from Ireland as a rugby union player and became involved with Red Devils when she played against Salford player, Steph Gray, in a union match.

When asked how she got into the Salford squad, McKeown said, “I was actually looking at other clubs because I missed the trials but then i got a message from one of the coaches.

“Steph (Gray) had actually showed the coaches a highlights tape from my union game and they were interested and got me down for a trial.”

“Because I haven’t really played league I don’t know what my best position is. I like fullback but you never know I might end up in the forwards.”

It has been a successful inaugural season for the Red Devils Women’s team with a number of impressive victories already on their resume, including a 42-0 win over Wigan St Pats in the last round of the cup.

The team now head to the next round of the League Cup looking to continue their remarkable winning streak. They will face Swinton Lionesses in the next round of the cup, the same side that they beat in their first ever fixture as a team, which they won 30-4.

The Red Devils Women will look to convert their good form into promotion to the women’s Super League where they will play the best women’s rugby league teams in the country, including St Helens, Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors.

Meanwhile, a League Cup run is definitely on the cards for the rampant Red Devils side, they will have aspirations to win the competition before they potentially gain promotion to the Challenge Cup competition.

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