Barrow Raiders community liaison officer Siona Hartley is hoping the achievements of Barrow Ladies this year can inspire a new generation of young girls to take up rugby league in the area.

Barrow Ladies have a home semi-final in the Women's Championship play-offs coming up tomorrow after finishing second in the regular season and will face third-placed Stanningley at Rating Lane.

Should they get through, they'll face the winners of Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants in the final next Saturday and they've been playing their part in the community this season.

Several of their players have been helping Hartley in the girls' junior rugby sessions that started taking place at Craven Park in the summer and will move indoors to Hoops Basketball Centre next month.

They've also been given a bigger stage recently, after playing their first-ever match at the Raiders' ground on September 15 against Oulton Raidettes.

Hartley said: "It depends on how much publicity got out there, and there were quite a few girls watching, but it's a slowly-slowly process.

"I think there will be girls who are inspired by that, but it's up to us to build on that now and we need them to be playing at the ground more regularly and our invitation is there for them to do so. They did want to play at the ground for their semi-final, but we've got mini rugby taking place there, which was already booked in.

"I think this is just going to go from strength to strength. What we're trying to achieve will take time to get going, but I think you'll see in a year or two's time that things will have really taken off and Barrow Ladies will benefit from that."