Michelle Larkin's try earned a 22-22 draw for Barrow Ladies against Leigh Miners Rangers last Sunday, but they came so close to snatching victory at the end.

In what was their second home game of the season, Barrow were looking to get back to winning ways after suffering 24-4 defeat at Stanningley Ladies in their previous fixture.

The match had the potential to be fiercely contested as these evenly-matched teams have met several times over the past few years, producing some great games of rugby.

Leigh were the team that started the sharpest, as following some fine rugby, they scored by the side of the sticks, with the conversion scored.

Barrow seemed to be finding their feet after a good set of six, but the work was undone following a couple of missed tackles, as Leigh broke through and scored from 40 yards out, with the goal opening a 12-0 lead.

The hosts needed to respond quickly to stop the game from getting away from them and they did just that through some quick thinking from Emily Stirzaker, who scored a lovely try by darting over from acting half-back.

Jodie Litherland added the conversion and it was very much game on when a nice pass from Beth Lindsay saw Stirzaker score again in the corner for her second try to reduce the deficit to two points.

Barrow were again slow to start in the second half, as Leigh put the pressure on with some neat attacking rugby and soon scored a fine try in the corner, conversion missed, 10-16.

But the hosts reapplied the pressure and following a fine passing move involving Lindsay, Litherland and Stirzaker, Jess Alexander scored in the corner, with Litherland's goal levelling the score at 16-16.

As the game entered the last 15 minutes it was Leigh that capitalised on some good kicking from Leanne Johnson to score, Johnson also scored the conversion, 16-22.

Another fine passing move then led to Larkin scoring in the corner and Litherland converted the pressure kick to square things again before a forward pass to Larkin barred Barrow from victory off the final play.