Barrow Raiders 38-12 Hunslet RLFC
Hunslet had a tough introduction to Championship Rugby League at The Northern Competitions Stadium, Barrow yesterday afternoon (16 February 2025) as the Parksiders lost out to a smarting Raiders side, who had been knocked out of the Challenge cup last week by fellow League 1 promoted club Oldham.
Although Barrow made some early mistakes, Hunslet couldn’t take the lead after Hennighan was late tackled. Matty Beharrell put the kick wide and from the restart Hunslet knocked-on giving up any chance of early pressure.
Barrow seemed to be winning the early arm wrestle, and most of the play was close to Hunslet’s line.
The Parksiders were having to do some tough defending, but took the lead on 8 minutes as Hanneghan intercepted a pass and fed Noah Booth who showed a pair of clean heels to out-sprint the Barrow defence for a try. Beharrell converting 0-6
This was a blip for the home team though, who hit back on 15 minutes. Brad Walker scored to the right of the posts after Hunslet were penalised for ripping, then got another on 19 minutes annoyingly nipping over at close range on the last tackle. 10-6
Hunslet found themselves on a rare attack up-field, but with Matty Beharrell looking dangerous, Ryan King somehow stole the ball and went 60 yards handing off weak tackling to score. 14-6
Hunslet tried to attack, but the Barrow defence were on form and on 25 minutes Luke Cresswell found gaps in the Hunslet defence before passing to Andrew Bulman to score. 18-6
After conceding four tries Hunslet were lucky Brad Walker had missed three conversions, and so were still in the game. Noah Booth who had looked dangerous with ball in hand made a break, and from the resulting play Hunslet agonizingly knocked-on with a gaping hole showing the Raiders line only yards away.
Shortly after, Ethan O’Hanlon was sin-binned for a late tackle and Hunslet’s afternoon got harder. Luckily an attempted drop goal sailed wide and we went into Half-time with Hunslet trailing 18-6.
The Parksiders came out in the second half more attacking minded, but early on Greg Eden was penalised for Crossing and from the resulting penalty on the last play Tom Wilkinson wriggled out of a tackle to score for Barrow. 24-6
It was too easy for the home side as on 49 minutes a team try involving Broadbent, Stack, Costello and finally Luke Cresswell put the score at 30-6.
Nothing was going well for Hunslet, with ball in hand they were making mistakes, but they dug in to stop the game turning into a rout and on 60 minutes Kobe Rugless on his debut nipped over from acting halfback close to the posts to narrow the score to 30-12.
Hunslet now had a bit of pressure, but Noah Booth’s little chip kick was read and the danger was over. Any chance of a come-back was snuffed out as Andrew Bulman snuck in the right corner for his second try of the afternoon and Tom Walker converted. 36-12
Although the game was effectively over, Hunslet’s forwards started to gain some yards with Ethan O’Hanlon and Sam Webb-Campbell running well, but the final decisions were poor and Barrow ended the game taking 2 points for a Hunslet infringement. 38-12
It was a tough afternoon for Hunslet. They were too lightweight in attack and defence, however it’s early season and clearly some new players will need to gel into the side. Although the last 20 minutes saw an improvement it doesn’t get any easier next week with the visit to the South Leeds Stadium of much fancied Bradford Bulls.
Noah Booth and Liam Welham shone, with Sam Webb-Campbell and Kobe Rugless impressing off the bench.
Barrow Raiders: Cresswell, Bulman, Costello, Teare, Broadbent, Brad Walker, Bishop, Wood, Gittens-Bernard, Tom Walker, Robson, Stack, King. Interchanges: Wilkinson, Brown, Toal, Pye. 18th Player: Woodend.
Hunslet RLFC: Watson, Turner, Booth, Jowitt, Eden, Hanneghan, Beharrell, Larroyer, Whitmore, Fishwick, Wood, Welham, Syme. Interchanges: Hallas, Rugless, O’Hanlon, Webb-Campbell. 18th Player: Gilmour.
Photo: Kobe Rugless scores on his debut. Credit Craig Irvine
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A disappointing display,in particular the defence. Hopefully we have learnt some lessons and will improve as the season progresses. It wasn’t all bad news,I thought the forwards did well and there was some promising moves in attack. We move onto next week .SWSA.