Egremont Rangers U16s 0 Barrow Island U16s 56

BARROW Island produced a storming display to whitewash Egremont and make it two wins from two in the West Cumbria Youth League.

The Island followed up their home success against Kells with an even better display on the road versus Rangers.

There were positive signs from the outset as Island kicked off and Rob Salt forced a goal-line dropout straight.

Rangers were under immense pressure as the visitors’ strong pack bore down on their line, with blockbusting prop Elliot Campbell crashing over after a powerful run through three defenders to open the scoring after just three minutes.

Island returned the ball from kick-off well and consistent strong running from Alfie Thomas, the tenacious Jack Newby and Warren Purcell set them up on Rangers’ 40-metre line.

Accurate half-back Shane Sanderson found the powerful Matty Brown and he broke the line to finish the first of his two tries, with Joe Dalton converting for 10-0.

Rangers came back strongly, but Island showed good line speed which their hosts struggled to cope with.

Defence was strong, with interchange forwards Joe Lashley, Harry Higgins and Josh Dodd standing up well to two sets of six before the turnover.

The Barrow side hit back, with great forward running setting them up. The ball went through hands and darting half-back Sam Johnson found Salt, stretching the defence. Salt provided a long pass to find the flying Will Martin, who was not stopping and finished excellently from 30 metres out.

Island were relentless and Dodd and Higgins made hard yards before Sanderson found line-breaker Brown, who hit the line at pace to break the Rangers defence and finish under the sticks.

Then came more solid defence from Thomas, Campbell and Purcell as Rangers turned the ball over.

The visitors passed it through hands, with Salt finding Luke Thompson, who broke the line and put out a timely pass to the excellent Cavan Murt, who finished his fifth try in two games.

Just before half-time, Island were back near the Rangers line and quick thinking from dummy half saw Sanderson burst through the defence for a well-deserved try.

Island who were not letting up and not long into the second half Murt took a high ball on the 30-metre line and showed great footwork to beat three defenders and cross the whitewash.

Two sets later, Thompson drove the ball in hard and the next pass found James Magee. He went on a 30-metre run before finding Mitchell Nicholson, who drew the full-back and had Salt pushing on the inside to score under the sticks.

Rangers did not give up the fight, but the travelling team again made the hard yards, with Sanderson quickly finding his runner in Newcastle Falcon Lashley on his RL debut.

Island pressed the line and Johnson finished well from 10 metres, showing good feet and an eye for the line on the fifth tackle.

Four minutes from the end, Dalton – who landed eight conversions in the match – finished off a solid game with a nice dummy to sell the Rangers defence.

Barrow Island face Wath Brow Hornets in the Cumbria Cup at Rating Lane on Sunday.