THE lessons learned from his off-season trip to Australia have been helping Paul Crarey get Barrow Raiders’ defence back on track.

Raiders began the 2017 season in imperious defensive form, including keeping clean sheets against York City Knights, Keighley Cougars and Hemel Stags, but were involved in a number of high- scoring games during a busy May.

A change of tactics and a renewed focus on defence in training – along with the players being refreshed and revitalised after a demanding month – helped Barrow restrict North Wales Crusaders to just one try in last Saturday’s 28-4 win.

And while he did not want to give away all his secrets, head coach Crarey revealed he had implemented a new drill which he picked up from an old friend and had seen in action on his travels.

“It’s something Rod Reddy showed me a long time ago, how to press from the middle, and when I went over to Australia they did it at a lot of their sessions,” said Crarey.

“It was a really good drill that stuck in my mind and it helps the middle. We talk about edge defence, but the middle is a massive key to how you defend an edge, and we’ve got back to it this week.

“Against North Wales, we let in one try on transition. It wasn’t well-structured, it was because we didn’t kick the ball out, it came off feet, they picked it up and got through two defenders.

“We’re getting a bit fresher now, you can see that in our style of play, we’re loosening up and the confidence is starting to come back.”

Crarey wants more of the same when Raiders head to London Skolars on Saturday aiming for another win which will take them closer to securing a top-three finish ahead of the League One Super Eights.

And with many of their main rivals for those places facing each other over the coming weeks, he is under no illusions as to how Barrow cannot afford a slip-up at the Skolars like last year’s 42-34 loss.

“We’re on course now for that top three slot and if we can get second, happy days,” said Crarey. “But we need points in the bag because if you look at the other teams, they’re losing six or seven games with five games to go before the eights.

“The RFL have given us a horrendous fixture list because we’ve done it tough on the road and travelled, but we’ve got through it now and it’s a new horizon for us where we’re through it all.”