Toronto Wolfpack win 20th rugby league game in a row, relegating Barrow Raiders

For the fully professional Wolfpack, it was another lopsided win over a team of part-timers.

Liam Kay scored three tries while Matty Russell and Andrew Dixon had two apiece and Josh McCrone, Joe Mellor, Anthony Mullally and Andy Ackers added singles for Toronto before an announced crowd of 7,129 at Lamport Stadium. Gareth O’Brien kicked nine conversions.

Ackers, Toronto’s hooker, had a fine game, setting up several scores via kick or offload.

Jamie Dallimore, making his 100th appearance, scored a try and booted a conversion and penalty for Barrow (4-21-1).

A Barrow knock-on off its first possession set the tone, with McCrone scoring a minute into the game. Despite some errors of its own, Toronto led by 10 points after 15 minutes, 20 after 30 minutes and was up 40-2 at halftime.

A Barrow try cut the lead to 46-8 in the 47th minute. But the tired visitors soon found themselves further behind as Toronto’s free-flowing offence hit high gear.

A trip to the sin-bin for Stargroth Amean, for a professional foul in the 65th minute, did not help the Barrow cause.

Russell increased his season try total to 26, one off Kay’s team record set in 2017. Fellow winger Kay has 10 tries in an injury-interrupted 2019.

Barrow needed a win to keep alive its hopes of remaining in the Championship. It was always going to be a tough ask for the injury-ravaged Raiders, who travelled with just two bench players — one of whom was dealing with a neck problem — instead of the normal four.

Work commitments and suspension also took their toll on the visitors on their 5,400-kilometre trip across the Atlantic.

Barrow may have been short men but that did not stop it targeting several Wolfpack players with some questionable hits. The referee spoke to both captains midway through the first half and tempers flared after some high tackles in the second.

The bottom two in the 14-team Championship are automatically relegated to the League 1, where Toronto started in 2017. With just nine points and one game remaining, the Raiders cannot escape the drop zone and so join Rochdale Hornets in going down.

Toronto came into the contest with a 5-0-1 career record against Barrow, with the average margin of victory 37.2 points. Barrow arrived riding a seven-game losing streak in league play. Its last win was June 23, a 38-16 decision over Featherstone Rovers.

“The lads who are travelling are in a positive frame of mind but we really need this game like a hole in the head,” Barrow coach Paul Crarey told the Mail newspaper in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, prior to the trip. “We know it will be tough against a team of such high quality.

“I realize we voted for it but sending part-time teams over there is a big disadvantage.”

The Wolfpack, whose bid to reach the Super League ended at the final hurdle last season in a 4-2 loss to London Broncos, will host the Sept. 22 playoff semifinal. A win moves Toronto into the Oct. 5 Grand Final. A semifinal loss and the Wolfpack have a second chance to advance via the final.

The game marked the Wolfpack’s inaugural “Forces & Families Day,” honouring the military.

For Wolfpack coach Brian McDermott, it was more than a promotion. The former Great Britain international served in Britain’s Royal Marines before embarking on his rugby league career. The 49-year-old McDermott, who applied to join the marines at 16, served tours in Iraq and Northern Ireland during his five-year stint.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Toronto Wolfpack win 20th rugby league game in a row, relegating Barrow Raiders

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