Match Report: Newcastle Thunder v Barrow Raiders Betfred Championship Round 19

Barrow Raiders and Newcastle Thunder played out a game full of physicality and commitment in blazing heat in Barrow.

Both sides went at it from the first whistle in hot and difficult conditions at the Speed Competitions Stadium. Barrow started the better of the sides putting Thunder under pressure and sending their big pack running hard at the physical Thunder defence, the likes of Ryan King and Brad Singleton were at the front of the action.

The game had a feeling of what we can look forward to later in the season of a play-off do or die battle. This took its toll on the players as Thunder’s influential captain Taylor Pemberton went off injured forcing Thunder into a reshuffle. This saw John Sagaga introduced in his place. As Thunder 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. 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 Brad Walker slotted to tie the game up in the extreme heat, this set up for an exciting second half.

The second half started just as attritionally as the first half with both teams throwing everything at each other in front of a growing crowd. On 57 minutes, Jack Smith fielded a kick in his own half, made good ground to find Jordan Lipp on the halfway line, Lipp ran in to score, Will Roberts converted to make it 6-12.

Thunder then scored three tries in the final quarter to beat a determined Barrow side. The first came as Thunder didn’t deal with a booming Barrow kick, Will Roberts reacted quickest to the bounce and ran in from his own half, he converted in a game breaking 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 beyond Barrow, Roberts converted to make it 6-24. The final score of the game came on the hooter as Will Roberts pounced on a loose pass, hacked ahead and ran it in from halfway to seal the Tynesiders victory, he converted his try.

The scoreline doesn’t do the game justice as it was a lot closer than it shows. Barrow threw everything at Thunder and they’ll re-group and look towards the play-offs with revenge in mind if the two teams meet again. Thunder battled adversity, losing influential captain, Taylor Pemberton to injury and handled the conditions better to seal a win that secures them play-off rugby in September.