Crarey considering Barrow’s back row options

Barrow Raiders coach Paul Crarey is mulling over which player in his current squad can fill the hole left by the departure of Craig Briscoe to Oldham.

Briscoe’s position at right side second row could potentially be filled by a number of candidates, and Crarey will use Barrow’s preseason friendlies to find the right man for the job.

“We are going to have to try and make up for the loss of Craig Briscoe on the right side of second row,” said Crarey, according to the North West Evening Mail.

“We don’t really want to put Wilksy [Oliver Wilkes] in the role, we want to keep him in the middle, so there is an option of putting Chris Hankinson in the second row and Cameron (Pitman) at centre.

“We have different options. Liam (Harrison) has a big right-foot step, he can play there at a push. Briscoe was very solid, so apart from that we are happy. He is a big miss, you don’t often get somebody on the right side who likes to defend like he did.

“He is a very aggressive defender, his strength was defence. He didn’t score many tries for us, but he was really solid in defence and sometimes did 30 or 40 tackles in a game.

“We wanted him to stay but we can’t do anything about that.”