Leigh Centurions opened their Co-operative Championship campaign with a thrilling home draw against reigning champions Barrow Raiders.
The 20-20 draw owed much to the coolness of Mick Nanyn who shrugged off a missed conversion to the first Leigh try to strike a 30 metre penalty, as it did to a dominant first half and spirited fightback from eight points down heading into the last ten minutes.
Barrow drew first blood in the 7th minute when Jamie Rooney, who just a couple of minutes earlier missed a penalty, cut through the centre of the defence and struck to goal to push the visitors to an early 6-0 lead.
Leigh responded after 13 minutes when Stuart Donlan linked on the back of smart passing from John Duffy and Robbie Paul. Nanyn couldn't convert but Leigh's tails were up and they scored again within five minutes.
Again it came off the back of skipper Paul. First he split the defence and twice involved Tim Hartley before the chase denied Donlan and then James Taylor. From the next play Paul put up a kick across the field and Dave Alstead collected to score his third try of the season, this time converted wide out by Hartley.
Although Hartley and Paul bossed the show with some excellent link work with Duffy, Leigh could not pierce the defence again and had to be content with a further penalty from Hartley after debutant Tyrone McCarthy was tackled high.
Trailing 12-6 at half-time, it was Barrow that struck a couple of minutes into the new half when Andy Bracek finished a good move in the corner. Rooney missed the conversion and was again off target after Barrow forged ahead through a Danny Halliwell touch down.
Liam Harrison broke on the next Barrow possession with Donlan hauling him down but swift passing to the right saw Zeb Luisi find Chris Young and the prop showed a good turn of pace to race in from 30 metres. Rooney's second goal suddenly opened an eight point lead before a try of real quality blew the game open again.
From nothing, Chris Hill stormed down the centre before his delightful flick pass found Donlan and the fullback ran into the clear for his second try of the game just eight minutes from the end. Hartley converted in double quick time before the Centurions spurned a kickable penalty. That attack came to nothing and when Harrison spilled the ball in the Leigh quarter there was only 46 seconds left.
Leigh launched a late attack and looked to have bombed the opportunity when McCarthy kicked through but when the ball squirmed away from Barrow, Halliwell dived from an offside position for Nanyn to claim a share of the spoils.
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