WITH rugby league at professional level having been a summer sport for the past two decades, it is perhaps easy to forget this means the players still have to put in all of their preparation work for the coming season during the coldest and darkest months of the year.

Another quirk the switch in 1996 produced was that the tradition of Boxing Day matches were kept alive – indeed, Leeds Rhinos, Batley Bulldogs, Halifax and Castleford Tigers will all be hosting games on the Feast of St Stephen this year – which has now come to mark the unofficial start of pre-season friendlies.

This year though, just 11 weeks since being denied promotion with a 32-22 loss to Toulouse Olympique in the Kingstone Press League One play-off final, and exactly two months before the 2017 season kicks off with the League One Cup, Barrow Raiders returned to action on December 18 with their opening pre-season match against the Barrow and District Select.

Amazingly, this was not the first friendly to be played in the build-up to the 2017 campaign – that honour goes to League One newcomers Toronto Wolfpack, who gave their North American trialists a run-out against Brighouse Rangers the day before at their English base.

But to be playing seven days before Christmas and just under a month since the curtain at last came down on the 2016 season with the Four Nations final, must have come as a slight shock to the system for some of, if not all of, the current Raiders squad.

Not so much, perhaps, for head coach Paul Crarey and his staff – all of whom plied their trade in the mud and rain of the northern English winters back in their playing days.

The same could be said for many of the Barrow and District side too, with many of the amateur competitions in the sport's heartlands having only followed the pros in switching to summer in recent years.

A total of 343 souls seeking their pre-Christmas rugby league fix were also tempted to Craven Park to get their first glimpse of Barrow's new signings and promising youngsters, although there was arguably not too much which could be gleaned from what turned out to be a one-sided affair.

The final scoreline of 92-4 is somewhat mitigated by the fact Barrow and District coach Paul Henderson only had 12 players available on the day – plus Raiders trialist and Millom prop Ethan Kelly as a late interchange call-up – and ended up playing the full 80 minutes at centre at the ripe old age of 42.

The amateurs did, at least, get some reward for their efforts five minutes from time when Dalton full-back Stuart Tippett snapped up a loose ball and dived over from short range for an unconverted try following an error from Ryan Fieldhouse – a score which was greeted with the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

But otherwise it was a tough afternoon for a game Barrow and District outfit, with the ominous signs being there after the Raiders worked space out wide for off-season signing Jarrad Stack to send fellow newcomer Declan Hulme over in the corner after two minutes, having barely broken sweat.

Ex-St Helens half-back Lewis Charnock showcased his kicking ability by landing the conversion out wide and went on to boot five of his six attempts at goal, plus putting in some testing kicks in general play – attributes which will be key following the departure of Chris Hankinson to Championship side Swinton Lions – and getting valuable playing time with half-back partner Jamie Dallimore.

Charnock then set up Karl Ashall to score under the posts, with Shane Toal's solo score and Carter's first being followed by mass changes for the Raiders

There was no let up in the scoring though as Ryan Fieldhouse got two, and Danny Morrow and Chris Fleming also went over to put the Raiders 44 points clear at half-time.

Fieldhouse, who alternated with the highly-rated Luke Cresswell at full-back, added two more after the break to finish with four tries on the day, with another from Carter, two from Stack, plus single scores for Andy Litherland, James Duerden and Danny Abram sealing the win.

The next generation played their part too, with under-19s half-backs Ryan Johnston and Jake Carter – the latter of whom kicked 14 points – showcasing their potential as well.

So, while the final score may have been a blow-out, the game itself still gave Crarey plenty to ponder in the build-up to January's four pre-season games against professional clubs.