» April 16th 2001
» Town 29 : 6 Barrow

After the disappointment of Good Fridays defeat Town bounced back with a good win built upon a fine defensive effort. This was a great team effort and certain individuals who had been under scrutiny showed that they are able to deliver the goods.

Town started with the same 17 players on duty from the Haven game. Positional changes saw Kevin Hetherington move into the centres at the expense of Leigh Smith, Anthony Samuel return to loose forward, Matt Sturm back in the second row and a starting place for Matthew Tunstall at prop.

A 3rd minute penalty for interference in the tackle gave Town the first scoring chance. Tane Manihera was successful with the kick from just inside the Barrow half to put Town into an early lead.

Jamie Beaumont made a good break in the 5th minute, which took Town close to halfway. On the last tackle Tane Manihera launched a high kick, but the ball went out on the full.

Good defence by Town held out the Barrow attack and they made good yards when they had the ball with Matthew Tunstall and Hitro Okesene making good yards. The ball was kept alive at every opportunity and the kicking game of Tane Manihera tested the Barrow defence.

Town extended their lead after 10 minutes. They were deep inside the Barrow half when Matthew Tunstall took the ball in and when he was tackled he was able to offload the ball to Lynton Stott who went in to score under the posts. Tane Manihera adding the conversion to put Town into an 8 - 0 lead.

Again Town drove the ball at Barrow. Matthew Tunstall and Hitro Okesene again making the yards. A penalty for a high tackle saw Town get the advantage deep in the Barrow half. The ball was used well and passed along the line to Graeme Lewthwaite who crashed through the defence to score in the corner. Tane Manihera missed with the touchline conversion attempt.

Tane Manihera kicked a beautiful 40/ 20 kick on 17 minutes to give Town a scrum on Barrow's 10 metre line. Town used the ball well and tested the Barrow defence forcing them to concede a penalty for offside. Tane Manihera easily kicked the penalty to extend the Town lead to 14 - 0.

Town were again made to defend hard and had to deal with several testing kicks from the Barrow attack. During this offensive effort, Darren Holt opened the Barrow scoring after 20 minutes with a penalty kick.

Kevin Hetherington was having a good game in defence and also showed that he has the skills in attack after 23 minutes when he powered through the Barrow defence and ran 30 metres to score in the corner. Tane Manihera was down injured and getting treatment, so Hetherington took the conversion himself and landed a good kick from out wide to move Town into a 20 - 2 lead.

Both sides continued to test each other with testing kicks, but handling errors and mistakes from both sides became more common. Town gave away a scrum deep their own half for the knock-on. Barrow had the ball and wasted it by giving away a penalty for crossing.

Owen Williamson went close to scoring in the 37th minute, but he was held up short of the line. The ball was spun back to Tane Manihera who landed the drop goal to further extend the Town lead.

Town had a chance to further extend their lead in the dying seconds of the half. Owen Williamson made a great break and was over the halfway line when he was caught. Barrow were punished for lying on in the tackle and Tane Manihera elected to kick for goal. His attempt fell well short of the target.

The second half saw Town under early pressure from Barrow. A 40/20 gave Barrow possession in the Town 20. Town tackled well and soaked up the pressure. Jamie Beaumont ran the ball out of defence. In the tackle Brett McDermott punched him and conceded the penalty. Town used the penalty to gain yards and were awarded another penalty almost immediately for a high tackle. Tane Manihera elected to kick for goal and missed, with what was for him should have been an easy scoring chance from in front of the posts.

Good play from Town on 46 minutes saw them keeping the ball alive and the ball was passed through several pairs of hands before Tane Manihera put in a kick for the corner. Jonathan Heaney raced after the kick, but was just beaten by the bounce as the ball went dead.

Jonathan Heaney again went close on 52 minutes. Town had again kept the ball alive and passed the ball along the line. Jonathan Heaney collected the final pass and was tackled into touch on the line.

Barrow were starting to come back into the game and penalty count was starting to increase. Both sides were getting punished for holding in the tackle and the referee had a word with both captains.

A 40/ 20 kick by Barrow on 64 minutes gave them a scrum inside the Town 20. They ran the ball at the Town defence and somehow released the ball in the tackle and Shane Irabor was able to score in the corner. Darren Holt missed with the conversion attempt to reduce the Town lead 21 - 6.

Penalties for holding in the tackle again started to creep into the game. Barrow were punished in quick succession for this. Paul Charlton was to pay the price for this on 69 minutes when he was sin-binned for laying on in the tackle. Tane Manihera kicked the resulting penalty to extend Town's lead to 23 - 6.

Graeme Lewthwaite added his second try on 74 minutes. Town had the possession deep in the Barrow half and the ball was swung along the line. Lewthwaite had come inside looking for the ball, and with men outside him and an overlap he threw the dummy and ran into the space he had created to score under the posts. Tane Manihera added the conversion to make the Town lead 29 - 6.

Barrow did not give up and continued to press the Town defence. In attack Town continued to run the ball, but neither side were able to add to the score in the dying minutes of the game.

Teams
Town: Lynton Stott, Jonathan Heaney, Neil Frazer, Kevin Hetherington, Graeme Lewthwaite, Tane Manihera, Lee Allen, Matthew Tunstall, Owen Williamson, Hitro Okesene, Jamie Beaumont, Matt Sturm, Anthony Samuel.
Subs: Fata Sini, Lokeni Savelio, Leigh Smith, Craig Rumney

Barrow: Daniel Lockheart, Adrian Gardner, Phil Atkinson, Brett McDermott, Shane Irabor, Darren Holt, Anthony Murray, Damien Whitter, Mike Cavanagh, Ian Rawlinson, Matthew Leigh, Stuart Rhodes, Gary Charlton
Subs: Jamie Marshall, Geoff Luxham, Tau Likau, Michael Whitehead.

Attendance: 1,103

Referee: R. Silverwood.