Second half performance bodes well for season ahead.
Barrow Raiders 50 Coventry Bears 6
MIKE HYDE
It is something of a sports reporting cliché to talk of a match being a game of two halves, but that was certainly the case on Sunday when Coventry Bears made the long trek up to Cumbria.
Bears Head of Rugby Alan Robinson was dismayed that his side again made a slow start to the game, one from which they couldn’t recover, but was heartened by a much stronger showing in the second half.
It had taken the home side just three minutes for Shane Toal to cross the line, duly converted by Jamie Dallimore.
Two more tries and successful conversions followed in the next ten minutes, and with the home side 18 points ahead after 13 minutes it looked like a cricket score was on the cards.
By now, Barrow were ruthless and the team who were in the Championship two years ago and are amongst the favourites to return there continued to pummel the Bears.
Two more tries and well taken conversions followed at similar intervals and with half an hour gone, were scoring at a rate of a point a minute.
At this point the Bears woke up and started to fight back, with Reece Rance being thwarted as the try line was in sight.
Another try from the home side put their lead at at 36-0 as they were cheered off at half time by a healthy crowd of 1,400.
The Bears came out hoping to stop the rout as the weather took a turn for the worse.
Unfortunately, the home side were in no mood to be merciful, and the points kept being added albeit at a much slower rate.
And then the Bears at last showed what they are capable of as new recruit Liam Welham scored the Bears only try of the afternoon.
Fellow new recruit Brad Clavering added two more points to add increased respectability to the score.
The Raiders then had a player sin-binned, and the Bears were now looking like a side that could match the long established Cumbrian side in most departments.
However, with such a margin already, and only a few minutes remaining there was no chance of a real comeback, and Barrow added the last score of the afternoon to hit the half century.
There is no fixture for the Bears this weekend, but the Sunday after, they face old rivals West Wales down in Llanelli, before returning to the Butts Park Arena to take on Doncaster on Sunday March 29th.
