BARROW RAIDERS ​6 NEWCASTLE THUNDER 30
PHIL WORLD, Speed Competitions Stadium, Saturday

A LATE Newcastle flurry saw them run out winners over Barrow but a game full of physicality and commitment wasn’t reflected in the final score.

Thunder battled adversity, losing influential captain Taylor Pemberton to injury, and handled the blazing hot conditions better to seal a ninth straight win that secures them play-off rugby in September.

The scoreline doesn’t do justice to Barrow, who threw everything at their visitors, and they’ll regroup and look towards the play-offs with revenge in mind if the two teams meet again.

Both sides went at it from the first whistle in difficult conditions.

Barrow started the better, putting Newcastle under pressure and sending their big pack running hard at the physical Thunder defence, with the likes of Ryan King and Brad Singleton at the front of the action.

The game had a feeling of what we can look forward to later in the season in a potential play-off, do-or-die battle. This took its toll on the players as Pemberton went off injured, forcing Thunder into a reshuffle with John Sagaga introduced in his place.

As they adapted to this adversity, Barrow got a deserved score on 22 minutes as Thunder made a mistake on their line and Curtis Teare received the ball, held his nerve and scored in the right corner. Brad Walker missed the kick but Barrow deserved their early 4-0 lead.

On 31 minutes Barrow were attacking again and looking dangerous but Jack Smith intercepted brilliantly to run in from 90 metres. Myles Harrison converted to give the Tynesiders what seemed like an unlikely lead given the amount of pressure they’d had to soak up.

The final score of the half came on 36 minutes as Thunder conceded a kickable penalty which Walker slotted to tie the game up and set up for an exciting second half.

The second half started just as attritionally as the first with both teams throwing everything at each other in front of a growing crowd.

On 57 minutes, Smith fielded a kick in his own half and made good ground to find Jordan Lipp on the halfway line. Lipp ran in to score, and Will Roberts converted to make it 6-12.

Newcastle then scored three tries in the final quarter – all also goaled by Roberts – to end Barrow’s determined challenge. The first came from Roberts himself, as he reacted quickest to a bouncing kick and ran in from his own half in a gamebreaking moment.

Into the last ten minutes, King Vuniyayawa ran a nice line and threw a clever pass to find Brad Ward to score and take the game definitively beyond the Raiders.

The final score of the game came on the hooter as Roberts pounced on a loose pass, hacked ahead and ran it in from halfway to seal the victory.

GAMESTAR: John Sagaga came on and played out of position for Newcastle, steering the ship from hooker.

GAMEBREAKER: Will Roberts’ try to take the score to 6-18 took the game beyond Barrow.

MATCHFACTS

RAIDERS
1 Luke Cresswell
2 Andrew Bulman
4 Curtis Teare
3 Shane Toal
5 Luke Broadbent
6 Brad Walker
7 Ryan Johnston
10 Joe Bullock
17 Alex Bishop
33 Brad Singleton
11 Ellis Robson
12 Matty Costello
13 Ryan King
Subs (all used)
16 Greg Richards
22 Jarrad Stack
30 Tom Forber
32 Harvey Makin

Tries: Teare (22)
Goals: B Walker 1/2

THUNDER
1 Myles Harrison
2 Andy Djeukessi
25 Jack Smith
4 Jude Ferreira
5 Brad Ward
27 Jordan Lipp
7 Will Roberts
10 Ryan Jackson
9 Taylor Pemberton
20 Mitch Clark
8 Bailey Antrobus
12 Noah Whittingham
17 King Vuniyayawa
Subs (all used)
3 Joe Law
18 Ukuma Ta’ai
22 John Sagaga
32 Justin Sangaré

Tries: Smith (31), Lipp (57), Roberts (64, 80), Ward (73)
Goals: Harrison 1/1, Roberts 4/4

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-6, 6-6; 6-12, 6-18, 6-24, 6-30

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Raiders: Ryan King; Thunder: John Sagaga

Penalty count: 4-2
Half-time: 6-6
Referee: Ryan Cox