A strong showing in the south of France wasn’t enough for Barrow Raiders as they were beaten 30-12 by Toulouse Olympique in Round 11 of the Betfred Championship.
A strong opening half saw the Raiders go 12-0 ahead, courtesy of two tries from winger Andrew Bulman.
His first came after slick hands towards the right-hand side, with an acrobatic finish in the corner.
Then shortly before the half-hour, he finished off a move which started near halfway, Brad Walker making the initial break before finding the supporting Charlie Emslie. He, in-turn, fed full-back Luke Cresswell, whose long pass wide found Bulman to score in the corner.
Toulouse had won their last three games in a row at home, scoring 118 points and conceding just 10 during that run, and they gained a foothold before half-time thanks to Olly Ashall-Bott’s try.
It was the French side who struck first in the second 40 through Benjamin Laguerre, not long before the home side hit the front as Reubenn Rennie touched down after a mountain of Toulouse pressure.
The two sides spent much of the last 15 minutes a man down after Curtis Teare and Joe Cator were sin-binned, and during that time the home side crossed twice more through Romeo Tropis and Paolo Dall’Asta to add further gloss to the scoreline.
And with the final kick of the game, a Jake Shorrocks penalty earned the hosts a 30-12 win which barely reflected the Raiders’ efforts.
TOULOUSE OLYMPIQUE 30
Tries: Ashall-Bott, Laguerre, Rennie, Tropis, Dall’Asta
Goals: Shorrocks 4
BARROW RAIDERS 12
Tries: Bulman, B.Walker
Goals: B.Walker 2
Photo credit: Dave Gibson
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