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Leeds Carnegie: Evergreen Barrow hands out a timely reminder
Scott Barrow.
It’s been a tough season for a few of the “old guard” at Leeds Carnegie – not least Scott Barrow.
The 31-year-old has been on the periphery for large chunks of the campaign thus far, starting just four Championship matches.
he has been unable to get a regular place with head coach Diccon Edwards largely relying on the fresh-faced combination of Iain Thornley and Joe Barker in the centres.
And while Barrow, in his fourth season at Carnegie, is long enough in the tooth to know that plenty can change ahead of the business end of the season – the play-offs – he is the first to admit that the season has been nothing other than difficult.
The former Glasgow, Orrell and Worcester player has needed to draw upon his considerable experience to handle the situation and having had to bide his time, is keeping his fingers crossed that better times are around the corner.
Barrow’s display in a rare start was one of the redeeming features of Carnegie’s defeat at Plymouth Albion last time out and while it was nothing other than a bad day at the office collectively for the visitors, the Lancastrian is hoping to have at least planted a few seeds in the mind of Edwards.
Barrow, out of contract at the end of the season, said: “I started the last game and while the result didn’t go our way, I thought my performance was getting back to the standard I’m used to playing at.
“Hopefully that’s put a nice reminder into the coaching staff’s minds and they will stick with me for the next few games. But you never know, they are trying combinations and seeing what is going to be best for the play-offs. Hopefully I’ll be in and around that.
“In my position, you have got to stay positive and remember the good times and not doubt yourself.
“I’ve been playing professionally for a long time and all you can do when you get the opportunity is show what you are capable of.”
Carnegie’s 25-20 defeat at Brickfields on January 14 against relegation-haunted Albion may have represented a low for Carnegie this winter, but it was also a timely reminder all the same.
On the day, the sheer intensity and will-to-win shown by Plymouth’s players, symptomatic of a club fighting for its life both on and off the pitch, tipped the scales in their favour with Barrow adamant that the episode could yet prove a valuable lesson for Carnegie’s largely-youthful side in terms of their evolution.
Barrow said: “Plymouth were more desperate than us and that can’t really happen, going into the next few games and especially the play-offs. When you play, you have got to be the most desperate and enthusiastic team.
“We can always improve as we do let ourselves down in the mental aspect sometimes. We’ve beaten nearly everybody once this season, but the odd result is letting us down and that could go a long way to getting us a lot higher.”
Edwards’ troops, who returned to training yesterday after a four-day break, have had plenty of time to mull over that defeat and refresh both bodies and minds for the critical weeks ahead.
Evidence as to whether they have learnt any lessons from Plymouth will only arrive by virtue of a revitalised performance against second-placed Bedford on Sunday, another intriguing game with plenty riding on it.
Barrow said: “After the last result, we had a sit down and chat about what we need to improve on and work on as a group.
“We’ve set a few goals for the upcoming fixtures before we get to the play-offs because we need to create momentum for them.
“The boys will have been thankful for a few days off and will maybe be a bit sharper in training. we’ve had time to think about things and now it’s about how we react on Sunday.
“Bedford play good rugby and like to throw it around and we know how dangerous they are.
“It will be a good test for us in terms of seeing what our mental approach is after it let us down at Plymouth.
“We’ve had the weekend off to take stock and we should now hit the ground running on Sunday.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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