ALEC Susino has impressed Paul Crarey with how quickly he has adapted to life in the Betfred Championship with Barrow Raiders.

The Italy international prop has started both of Raiders' opening fixtures of the 2018 season and got plenty of minutes under his belt in the 8-8 draw with Toronto Wolfpack last Sunday.

It was again somewhat alien conditions for Susino at Craven Park in that game due to the snow and mud, compared to what he is used to in Australia, but head coach Crarey was delighted with how he coped both with those and Barrow's full-time opponents.

“I thought Alec was outstanding,” said Crarey. “We knew there were big minutes in Alec so we left him out there in the middle and his engine is massive.

“He reminds me so much of Dave Armitstead (the former Barrow forward, also from Australia) when we brought him here, and that's why we signed him, because he's relentless, he's got a massive engine and the kid can play.

“It's little things we see that other people don't see which sets him out as a good player.

“He's only in his early 20s and I don't think he's the biggest, but he's got massive arms, he's very strong in contact and he rolls out pretty well.”

Raiders face another tough test this Sunday when they play the last of three consecutive matches against full-time Championship teams at home to Leigh Centurions.

The draw with Toronto has given them plenty of reasons to believe they can again be competitive, after suffering a tough induction to life in the division with a 56-12 defeat away to London Broncos.

Crarey was impressed with how his side put into practise the lessons learned from that loss in the club's first game back in the second tier and is in no doubt this is a group of players capable of surviving in the division.

“I'm pretty excited about this group of players no matter what happens and we can be competitive,” said Crarey. “London, we knew it was going to be tough because of the fast track and we'd trained and played in the mud, and it was like a culture shock to us.

“We gave so much ball away trying to match them, but we don't have to match teams, we just have to be solid and we proved that against Toronto with our shape and structure being solid, and it gave us a chance to get a result. We were so close to getting that, but we got a fantastic draw.

“I just think it's massive for the club because a lot of these kids have played League One for three years.

"Even people like Glenn Riley and Jono Smith, who has come in from Rochdale who were around the bottom end of the Championship, and Alec and Dean (Parata) don't know what to expect.”