Barrow Raiders head coach Paul Crarey admits his players lacked composure at key times as they fell to defeat at Sheffield Eagles.

The Eagles ran out 36-18 winners at Olympic Legacy Park, despite playing more than 50 minutes with 12 men after Vila Halafihi was sent off for a high shot on Charlie Emslie.

There were just two points in it at half-time as the Raiders trailed 8-6, but the hosts moved through the gears in the second half and took advantage of some errors and ill-discipline to run out comfortable winners.

Speaking post-match, Crarey said: “We were a bit lateral. We came out in the second half and said we needed to knock out some sets, stay with them and take our chances. They’re a good side with 12 men and we didn’t do that.

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“In the first set we had, we threw an intercept on play two. They got some life from that, and from then on we went 20 sets to nine down.

“We hardly touched the ball, and when we did, we completed five of the nine [sets]. We weren’t clinical at the back end of the sets and forced the ball a little bit when we needed to play through the middle.

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“We scored two nice tries playing off our middles, but at times we bypassed that and it was a little bit frantic on the edges. We paid the price for that.

“It’s been a difficult week in terms of getting personnel on the field.

“I can’t fault their effort, against a very good team who have only been beaten once at home all year.”

Crarey has also confirmed that Kavan Rothwell suffered a suspected broken collarbone on debut, while Charlie Emslie will miss next Sunday’s game against Featherstone Rovers due to concussion protocols.

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