DARREN Carter is excited by what the season could hold in store for the new Furness Raiders under-19 team as they prepare to make their bow in the RFL College Rugby League.

The team, which has been formed as the result of a partnership between Barrow Raiders and Furness College, began training for the 2016/17 season on Monday night, with their first competitive match at home to Wigan Warriors Education Academy on Wednesday, October 5.

Academy coach Carter and his staff have brought together some of the best young talent from the area to form the side, along with recently adding Askam first-team regular Joe Satterthwaite, and under-16s players Matty Brown, Tyler Lancaster, Robert Salt and Elliott Campbell to the set-up.

And after months of hard work and planning, former Barrow half-back Carter cannot wait to see how his side fare when the season finally gets underway.

“We're really pleased with what has come in,” said Carter. “We've got the nucleus of the players who trained last year and we're really excited.

“We're really looking forward to getting going, Monday night was the start of it all and it's all systems go ready for the new season.

“There has been a lot of work gone into it over the past 12 to 18 months and, hopefully, come October 5, it's the start of a new dawn for Barrow and what we've all been working towards.”

Carter, along with his staff of team manager Dennis Porter, assistant Dave High and team administrator Keith Nutter, is keen to repay the faith shown in the team by their sponsors.

Furness Building Society, the Ambrose Hotel, Knightsbridge Motors and Travel the Globe have all pledged their support for the project, while further funding has been drawn from the Super Lotto Development Programme.

Carter is in no doubt this is the best way for Barrow to go about developing young players as it offers them the change to play rugby at a high standard, while at the same time allowing them to obtain a good education and enhance their employment prospects – particularly for when their playing career is over.

“What sometimes happens with these rugby players is they get to 30 and they're looking to start their working life then, and the jobs are pretty limited if you haven't got anything behind you,” said Carter.

“It becomes quite hard to get a decent job, whereas this way we feel we're doing both.

“They're getting a good grounding, a good education, a good job, and also playing rugby at a decent level with good facilities and good coaching, and hopefully some of these kids can sign on.

“That's the day when it becomes worth it, when Barrow start offering a few contracts to some of these kids coming through the academy. That's when we know it's paying for itself.”

Carter is hoping to secure a friendly with either Halifax's elite academy team or one of the area's amateur sides ahead of the season.

But while he admits they do not know what to expect from the other sides the league, he is confident the team will be able to hold their own after being impressed with the display in the 26-18 loss to Hopwood Hall College in the National College Cup back in March.

“It's a bit unknown to us,” said Carter. “We had a bit of a taste of it last season against Hopwood Hall, who are a really strong college, and we gave a good account of ourselves on the night.

“We were narrowly beaten, but on another day we could have beaten them and it gave us a good insight into what the standard is going to be like.

“We're up to speed on a lot of things, we'll have a good pre-season and we've got a good month going at it, and hopefully we'll be ready when we kick off.

“We want to repay a lot of people's faith and investment, and hopefully these kids can go on to play for Barrow Raiders one day.”

Read more: Ryan Fieldhouse not expected to be hunted by Toronto Wolfpack

Read more: Paul Crarey happy as Barrow Raiders hard work reaps rewards in London