Barrow 18 Sheffield 20: Eagles regain top spot with full-back’s triple

The top versus bottom clash was much closer than many anticipated, with the Cumbrian hosts declaring their intentions early on as Liam Finch collected a Sean Casey grubber kick to score a try by the posts.

After an even first 15 minutes were battled out at both ends of Craven Park, Sheffield struck twice in the space of four minutes to take the lead.

Both four-pointers came from prolific full-back Quentin Laulu-Togagae, the first finishing off a move with a 15-yard run on the right and the second as the Raiders’ defence opened up and allowed the Sheffield player through on the left.

With Dominic Brambani missing both conversions, the advantage was only two points and battling Barrow refused to give up the chase.

The hosts went back ahead as Nathan Mossop forced open a gap and ran in from dummy half, but the Eagles regained a 14-12 half-time lead as Laulu-Togagae completed his hat-trick of tries by grounding a Brambani kick near the sticks.

Having crushed Barrow twice already this term, Sheffield looked to kick on after the interval, but were unable to do so, as Raiders held them to just a single try, former Barrow hooker Andrew Henderson going in from dummy half.

Raiders struck back through Danny Jones and pushed for an unlikely win, but the Eagles held out to make it nine points from three games over a busy week-and-a-half.

Barrow Raiders: Campbell, Backhouse, Wiper, McGilvray, Clay, Finch, Casey, Whitehead, Mossop, Brennan, Harrison, Toal, Jones. Substitutes: Dandy, Spencer, Haggarty, Dawson.

Sheffield Eagles: Laulu-Togagae, Turner, Yere, Armstrong, Taulapapa, Walker, Brambani, Higgins, Henderson, Stringer, Knowles, Szostak, Hirst. Substitutes: Davey, Gledhill, Green, Esposito.

Referee: J Cobb (RFL).