Barrow Raiders couldn’t halt the Featherstone Rovers juggernaut as they lost 46-6 in the semi-final of the 1895 Cup.
The visitors were just too strong and showed just why they are the best team in the Betfred Championship.
It had taken them only seven minutes to go in front when Morgan Smith ploughed through the home defence to make the touchdown. Craig Hall converted.
Barrow battled hard after that poor start and were doing well until the 24th minute when a pass from Jarrad Stack aimed for Tee Ritson was intercepted by Hall who raced in for an unconverted try.
Barrow still felt they were in the contest until three minutes before the interval when Luke Broscie had a walk in at the corner and Hall landed a touchline conversion.
In the main, though, it had been a determined effort from the home side and when they had their moments in attack were just unable to find a way through a strong Featherstone defence.
The second-half had only been going four minutes when Featherstone increased their lead to 22-0. They just kept moving the ball and Raiders eventually ran out of defenders which allowed John Davies to touch down and Hall added the extras.
Barrow, though, scored the try which they richly deserved on 50 minutes. A splendid 40/20 kick from Jarrod Sammut put Barrow in a strong attacking position and although Ritson was held up just short the ball was moved across for Dan Toal to crash over. Sammut converted.
The euphoria was short-lived for on 58 minutes Featherstone hit back and Brett Ferres found it too easy to go through the Barrow defence for a try which Hall converted.
It was only in the closing quarter of the game when Barrow appeared to tire and Featherstone finished strongly with more tries from Mark Kheirallah, Ryley Jacks and Briscoe, all of which were converted by Hall.
