South Wales Scorpions v Barrow Raiders match preview

South Wales Scorpions come out of a three week break to take on Barrow Raiders at Caerphilly RFC this Sunday (kick-off 3pm).

The Scorpions will have three new dual registration players from Halifax in Jamie Stringer, Cian Timmins and Martyn Reilly whilst there are still a few long-term injuries in the home side’s camp with Connor Farrer and Tom Morgan amongst those not named for this Sunday.

Scorpions coach Phil Carleton said there are pros and cons to having such a long break from the action.

“The bumps and bruises go and it lets us try and do a bit more individual prep and spend more time with them,” he said. “At the same time I’m aware we haven’t played for two weekends but I’m hoping that the time away won’t be too detrimental.

“Barrow’s scores have been a little bit up and down at times and I’m hoping they bring one of those lesser performances to us this weekend. We’ll be up against it, we know that, but we’ll be focused on trying to replicate how we finished against York.

“There’s very little we can do to affect Barrow’s performance, so we’re doing the best we can to make sure we can compete. If we can compete for the first 20 and continue on from there, then hopefully we can deliver.”

Barrow Raiders beat York 50-12 at home last week. Coach Paul Crarey said: “It was great to get the win against York, who were flying. Looking at the tapes of our previous games we weren’t that far away, it was just individual errors and penalties. Against York, we were real good on that score, about seven penalties in total and the error count was really low. I thought in the second half we were outstanding. We’ve got to keep it going though.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s game he said: “It’s difficult when you’re travelling all day Saturday and stopping overnight. The situation changes for the players and it’s how they conduct themselves. It’s all about attitude.

“I’ve watched tapes of South Wales. For large parts of the game they compete but tend to lose concentration for short spells which hurts them. They’re a big side, they’ve got good structures. We’re going to prepare well, build on last week’s performance and push on and try and get a run together.”

Barrow centre Andy Litherland is out with a dislocated shoulder and second row Danny Morrow picked up a concussion last week.

Tickets priced £8 for adults, £5 concessions and £1 juniors are available for www.scorpionsrl.com.

BARROW RAIDERS (from)

1              Ryan Fieldhouse

2              Shane Toal

3              Chris Hankinson

5              Cameron Pitman

8              Joe Bullock

10           Oliver Wilkes

11           Liam  Harrison

12           Dan Toal

13           Martin Aspinwall

14           Brad Marwood

16           Max Wiper

17           Andrew Dawson

18           James Duerden

19           Anthony Bate

21           Dan Abram

24           Matthew While

27           Matthew Holmes

28           Jamie Dallimore

29           Karl Ashall