Barrow Raiders collected their second pre-season friendly victory when they beat North Wales Crusaders 32-18 at Craven Park.
Carl Forster, the former Barrow prop, brought his Crusaders side back to Cumbria and they were encouraged by an early try. Matt Unsworth crashed over the after just five minutes.
Barrow had produced some exciting, passing rugby in their previous friendly win a week earlier against Rochdale and they were in the mood again.
A charge towards the Crusaders’ line gave the Raiders some good field position which allowed Brad Walker to fire a pass over to Ryan Shaw who controlled the ball with his
Tom Wilkinson scored Barrow’s second try when he got on the end of a cut-out pass and he raced in between two North Wales defenders to get the try.
The third try saw Ryan Johnston link up with Brad Walker and he quickly offloaded to the supporting James Greenwood who ignored the challenge of three Crusaders to drive over.
The Raiders continued to force the pace and when Luke Broadbent made a break down the left he found Johnston in support, who managed to make the line.
The Crusaders, who had scored the first try of the game, had been relatively quiet in attack until Toby Hughes got through for their second try – both being converted by Owain Abel.
Barrow did have the final word of the half when Luke Cresswell collected a well executed chip from Johnston to give his side a 28-12 advantage at the break.
The second half was much quieter by comparison with only one try apiece. The lively Johnston scored his second on 57 minutes for Barrow and five minutes from time Patrick Ah Van crossed for the Crusaders.
Shaw kicked four goals for Barrow while Abel finished with three for the visitors
The Raiders are at home again on Sunday, January 21 (3pm kick-off) with Hunslet the visitors.
