Boro’s toe to toe at Barnsley

SPECTACULAR tries from Samantha Brazier and Harriet Widdup saw Littleborough Ladies go toe to toe with Barnsley Ladies away at Shaw Lane.

In an frenetic cross border friendly, Littleborough recovered from a poor start to give an experienced Barnsley side a hard thought encounter.

The home side used all their experience and quality to build a significant 19 point lead in the first quarter.

Littleborough Pink Warriors were not helped by the disappointing withdrawal of debutant Jodie Brock, who was forced to leave the field early with a nasty looking cut on her forehead.

The mountain to climb could have been higher had Melissa Rigg not made some important tackles on the wing that prevented further tries for the home side.

Instead the visitors went down the other end and scored their first points of the afternoon through the promising Megan Dickinson.

Barnsley did get on top again through their forwards who carried strongly and dominated in the loose.

On the other hand, Littleborough never dropped their heads and showed great determination and resilience.

Olivia Turner led from the front in the forwards and was well supported by Olivia Frain (before her injury), Sharon Pearson, Chloe Mansell (playing at hooker for the first time) and Summer Harris.

Finding herself in the unfamiliar position of centre, Samantha Brazier Brazier scored an amazing long-range try.

Prop Harriet Widdup then raced 50 metres for a try, Claire Sutcliffe applied to extras from the tee.