PAUL Crarey is pleased to see Barrow Raiders’ Papua New Guinean trio have quickly adapted to life with the club.

There has been a lot for Wartovo Puara Jr, Stargroth Amean and Willie Minoga to take in since they arrived in the UK just over one month ago, with their first few days in the country seeing them introduced to the Barrow public at the club’s sponsors night hours after landing at Manchester Airport and then making their first appearances in a friendly at home to Oldham two days later.

The biggest shock for them has perhaps been the cold weather, but they have been warmly welcomed by the club’s supporters and have quickly made their mark on the pitch too.

That was evidenced last Sunday against Sheffield Eagles when Puara and Amean got their first tries for the club, with the latter going over twice and showing superb footwork, timing and vision to score.

So far, prop Minoga – nicknamed ‘The Freight Train’ – has been used to good effect off the interchange bench, although hooker Puara has had to play long spells in the absence of Nathan Mossop.

Even so, he has impressed and Raiders head coach Crarey was delighted with how all three performed in the 24-22 loss to the Eagles.

“They were outstanding and Willie went well when he was on the field with his carrying,” said Crarey.

“At times, Wats is struggling because we get the mail he needs a break and we’ve got young Jake (Carter) there.

“But I spoke to him at half time and said ‘we’ve got a young kid here who I want to give him his debut, but we need to get a grip of the game’.

“Wats is a good player for us – all three Papua New Guineans are fitting in well.”

There have been encouraging signs too for one of Barrow’s more established Southern Hemisphere players in Jarrad Stack, who is being eased back into action after missing the second half of last season due to injury.

The Australian back row has been on the interchange bench for both the win at Batley Bulldogs and last weekend’s game against Sheffield, showing few signs of any lingering effects of that injury.

However, Crarey is cautious about expecting him to do too much too soon after revealing he almost left him out of the squad for the visit of the Eagles.

“Jarrad is coming back slowly,” said Crarey.

“He had a bit of soreness in the week and we were doubting whether to play him and I thought he did a really good job for us on the edges as well.”