Jarrod Sammut becomes a free agent as former Super League half-back departs Barrow Raiders
Jarrod Sammut in action for Barrow Raiders at the 2023 Summer Bash - Alamy
Veteran half-back Jarrod Sammut is now a free agent having departed Championship outfit Barrow Raiders at the expiry of his contract, as confirmed this morning.
Set to turn 37 in February, Sammut has spent the last two seasons in Cumbria with the Raiders, making 50 appearances and scoring 26 tries in the process.
Joining Paul Crarey’s side ahead of the 2022 campaign, he had a key role in taking a newly-promoted side into the second tier’s play-offs, losing out to eventual finalists Batley Bulldogs.
This year meanwhile has seen the Raiders scrapping it out at the opposite end of the table, securing their survival late on with Sammut over the course of a whirlwind final weekend of the season playing for both Malta and Barrow.
Now, he departs the Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium ahead of the 2024 campaign, becoming a free agent in the process. The playmaker’s next destination is still to be confirmed.
Jarrod Sammut becomes a free agent as former Super League half-back departs Barrow Raiders
Barrow confirmed Sammut’s departure, one of 13 to exit the club from their 2023 squad, this morning in a squad update published on their club website.
Born in Blacktown, New South Wales, the 36-year-old debuted Down Under in the NRL for Penrith Panthers back in 2007 and made the move over to the British game three years later with Crusaders.
The well-travelled stalwart has gone on to don a shirt for nine different clubs on these shores to date, amassing 273 appearances between the aforementioned Crusaders, Bradford Bulls, Wakefield Trinity, Featherstone Rovers, London Broncos, Workington Town, Wigan Warriors, Leigh – then Centurions – and Barrow, with 174 tries in that time.
Over 100 of those appearances came at the top table in Super League, with a few more than that in the Championship. Alongside his achievements at club level, Sammut is well-versed in the international game, representing his Maltese heritage – through his paternal grandparents – from 2006 onwards.
Debuting for ‘The Knights’ in October of that year against Lebanon, he’s featured more than 20 times, also earning one cap for Malta in rugby union with that coming against Croatia in October 2008.