BARROW RAIDERS boss Paul Crarey hopes a two-and-a-half week break before his side’s next match at Doncaster on Wednesday, May 20 will mean more selection options.
The Cumbrian club already had a number of absentees before prop Finn McMillan (wrist) and secondrows Ellis Robson (hamstring) and Matty Costello (ribs) picked up knocks during the 37-22 defeat at Newcastle.
“The injuries we’ve got are biting,” said Crarey, who saw club-produced scrum-half and now skipper Ryan Johnston make his 150th Raiders appearance, the first coming in 2017, and brought 17-year-old frontrow Stevie Watson, another to emerge from the Furness Raiders development side, off the bench for a league debut (his third Barrow appearance in all).
The coach continued: “We’ve been at the stage of needing to use some of our young blokes, and it was a big plus to see Stevie going on and putting himself around.
“What these two weeks will do is give us a chance to look after our players and hopefully bring some back.”
The Doncaster game is one of the additional two handed to Barrow to compensate for not playing mothballed Featherstone this year, with the return at the Speed Competitions Stadium on Wednesday, August 12.