Barrow Raiders half-back Brad Walker says the squad are champing at the bit to face his former club Wakefield Trinity in the quarter-finals of the 1895 Cup this weekend.
The Raiders overcame Cumbrian opposition in Workington Town and Whitehaven to book their place in the knockout stages of the competition, meaning just two wins now stand between Paul Crarey’s side and a trip to Wembley.
Despite being handed a tricky-looking away draw in the last eight, Walker says the squad are fully prepared to put the best version of themselves forward, having suffered defeat at home to Oldham in the Betfred Challenge Cup in their previous outing.
“The last game against Oldham didn’t really go to plan – I thought that in the first half the lads executed the plan correctly, and then the second half just didn’t go as we wanted,” he said.
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“But that’s done now, and we’ve got an even bigger challenge this week away at Wakefield. We’re all excited.
“We know that we’re the underdogs going into the game, but we don’t feel like that. We fully believe we can go there and get the job done.
“Cresta has put a lot of faith in us and given us a lot of freedom to throw the ball around. He wants us to be the great entertainers this year – not to just go to places and play boring rugby.
“We want to go into every game testing teams and showing them how skilful we are, because we’ve got a lot of quality and power in our squad.”
It will be a particularly special occasion for Walker, who comes up against the side he featured 25 times for between 2020-22.
The Barrow-born half-back knows the magnitude of the challenge facing them, but says games like Saturday’s will be of real benefit to the players as they continue to build ahead of their Betfred Championship opener at Widnes Vikings on March 17.
“I think that’s probably the exciting thing about it,” the 26-year-old added.
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“You play rugby because you want to play against the best players, so when you get a chance to play in a big occasion, in a quarter-final against probably the best team in the Championship who are tipped to go straight back into Super League, it’s where we can test ourselves.
“I think that coming up against your old club probably adds to the nerves that you feel before the game too, because I want to impress.
“I’ll be going out with a point to prove. It’s probably a good thing for me to come up against the competition’s favourites, to show them what I’m made of and that I’ve still got the ability to play in the Super League.
“I just need to keep my head down and keep working hard. Cresta has been really good with me – he’s put no weight on my shoulders and has given me the freedom to play.
“I’m really enjoying my time at Barrow and the challenge ahead of us this weekend.”
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