Barrow Raiders have long been looking for reinforcements to their squad and they’ve been able to find one after signing half-back Ben White from tomorrow’s opponents Halifax.

White has signed a contract until the end of the season with the Raiders and he bolsters an area where they’ve been short of cover of late, particularly with Lewis Charnock currently serving an eight-game ban for a dangerous tackle against Sheffield Eagles.

The 24-year-old began his career with Leeds Rhinos, for whom he made his senior debut against London Broncos in August 2014.

From there, White moved on to Swinton, where he won promotion to the Championship in his first of three seasons with the Lions in 2015, in which he was nominated for the League One Young Player of the Year award.

He then had a spell playing in Australia for Berkeley Eagles in the Illawarra Division before signing for Fax in November last year.

White was in the starting line-up for Simon Grix’s side when Barrow were thrashed 48-10 in the reverse fixture at The Shay last month.

However, he won’t be able to face his former teammates at Craven Park on Sunday, as his registration went through after the midday deadline yesterday, meaning he will have to wait until next week’s away game at Featherstone Rovers to make his debut.

White said: “The move came around quite quickly, really. Obviously, I spoke to my agent and looked at the availability out there of other clubs that might be interested in me and Barrow were the first club that jumped at me.

“After that, I didn’t really have sights on anything else, so I’m just happy to be on board now and just ready to get that game time.”

White’s signing comes at a time when Barrow’s injuries and other absences were starting to mount up again, to the point where young Jake Carter was recalled from his loan at Whitehaven.

This was after loose forward Jono Smith had to fill in at scrum-half in the 1895 Cup tie against Bradford Bulls just over a week ago.

“They’ve had a tricky season,” White said, adding: “Obviously, they’ve been down on a lot of bodies, but they’re starting to get quite a lot of them bodies back now.

“With the addition of myself, I think they can kick on for the rest of the season now and avoid that relegation at the end of the season.”

White faces a tricky task in achieving that, with the Raiders going into tomorrow’s match against Halifax three points adrift of safety. It is to their credit, however, that they’ve been able to find a player at this stage of the season who had been playing fairly regularly for a fellow Championship team.

Rugby director Andy Gaffney said: “I think it’s really important to freshen the squad – we’ve been hammered by injuries all year.

“Ben’s agent phoned us up about him and I didn’t think twice about him because Ben’s calibre is there for all to see.

“He’s been an ever-present for Halifax. Richard Marshall brought him in last year, he’s a big fan of his and he got man-of-the-match against us when they put a few points into us.

“Ben’s a really good kid who can play in the halves, he can also play at centre, he’s a very good defender and I think Barrow supporters will be delighted when they see him on the park.”