Barrow 20 Centurions 24 by Mike Hulme

THE Rugby Football League was left red-faced on Sunday night when the draw for the Arriva Trains Cup had to be re-drawn after a mix-up with the balls.

When the draw was made, York were incorrectly announced as having a home tie with Leigh Centurions with Hull KR set to play Whitehaven at home.

But it was then pointed out that Leigh and Hull KR had been allocated wrong numbers.

The decision was made to immediately hold the draw again and now Leigh travel to Whitehaven, and York to Hull KR in the semi-finals. "In the heat of the moment a wrong name was called against a ball," said an RFL spokesman. "In the interests of fairness we decided to make the draw again immediately."

Coach Darren Abram, who was present when the draw was made at Barrow after Leigh's narrow 24-20 win, had no complaints.

"No-one was to blame. It was just an honest mistake with the numbers. It was dealt with perfectly correctly. The right decision was made."

Abram was probably simply relieved just to be in the draw after Division Two side Barrow had threatened to pull off a shock win.

With new recruit Matt Sturm showing up well on his debut, Leigh looked like running away with it when they raced into an early 8-0 lead with a Simon Knox try and two Neil Turley goals.

Barrow, however, responded with three tries and Leigh needed a second try from front rower Knox and a cheeky solo effort from Tommy Martyn to hang onto an 18-16 half time lead.

Leigh managed to open up some daylight when Turley's long pass gave Damian Munro the chance to step his marker and get in out wide.

The game was back on a knife-edge when huge Tongan sub Tama Wakelin powered in.

That meant Centurions needed to dig deep and it took some desperate defending in the final 10 minutes of the game to keep them in a winning position.