Barrow sign Pitman and Ward from Leigh
Leigh Centurions have confirmed that Cameron Pitman and Josh Ward have moved to Barrow Raiders.
Pitman, 25, a centre, moves to Cumbria on loan for a month. The Dorest-born player, who grew up in Australia, debuted for Leigh in 2013.
He has played 16 first-team games, and scored six tries.
“Cameron is a great person and a great player,” said Derek Beaumont, Leigh’s director of rugby.
“He gives everything 110 percent all of the time and is valued amongst the group.
“It is our job as a club to ensure all our players are progressing, and sometimes that involves putting a player on loan to get the competitive games he needs, and also enable them to generate some bonuses that they can only do whilst playing.
“We have a few of our future stars on loan at Barrow and Cameron will fit right into that whilst maintaining his full-time training with us.
“‘Rolls’ (Leigh head coach Paul Rowley) is very comfortable with the environment and systems of Cresta (Barrow head coach Paul Crarey) which gives us confidence that our players will progress at Barrow.”
Ward is a 19-year-old half-back who is joining Barrow on a permanent basis, after being on loan at the club for a spell.
“Josh Ward is a player that has been coming along nicely and part of his development was to go to Barrow and take the next step which it is evident he has been more than capable of doing,” said Beaumont.
“We have agreed to let Josh to fully commit his short term future to Barrow so that he can fully embrace and concentrate on what they are doing.
“We are not turning our back on him but allowing him to progress in the manner that is right for him.
“Rolls will monitor Josh during review of our boys’ performances from the Barrow videos.
“There is nothing to say that Josh won’t end up playing for Leigh down the line as he is a young talent.
“You can’t keep hold of everyone and have to be fair to players to act in their best interests in order that they can achieve the best they can for themselves at that particular time.
“Barrow wanted some certainty around Josh so that they could build and forward plan and when we considered this we agreed that it was right for Josh and we really wish him every success at Barrow.
“He is a great lad and will always be most welcome at our club.”
Paul Rowley added: “Barrow have a fantastic coaching set-up and play some good rugby. We have allowed Josh Ward to join Barrow on a permanent basis, whilst Cameron Pitman will head up there on loan.
“I have great confidence in our partnership with Barrow, and this has allowed both us as a club and Josh to fully commit to them.
“Cameron will benefit from some good quality game time there, and I’m sure he’ll fit straight in.”
