Orange Hawks and the Blayney Bears fought out a thrilling 13-all draw in the two sides’ round 11 clash at Wade Park on Sunday, the visiting defending premiers coming from behind twice to snatch a point from the unbeaten two blues.

Having swept virtually all before them this season, Marty Lyden’s league tag side looked set to breeze past Blayney too, jumping out to 10-0 at half-time thanks to tries to Jacky Lyden and Sophie Humphris.

A penalty goal to Bec Ford in the second stanza then bumped Hawks out to a two converted tries advantage.

But the defending champs clawed their way back, Sophie Stammers crossing first to make it 12-6 before Liv Bird bagged a converted try to draw level with Hawks with seven minutes left.

With less than five minutes remaining, Ford then coolly slotted home a one-pointer for the two blues to edge to a 13-12 lead.

Then, mayhem followed.

Hawks spilled the ball off the kick-off allowing the Bears back into the contest, an invitation Bird gladly took in the form of a successful field goal for Blayney in the dying minutes of the clash.

Really, a draw is a fitting result given the quality both sides dished up on Sunday – surely an entree to what is shaping up as an enthralling finals series come August.

“I honestly think that’s one of the best games we’ve played, which shows you where Blayney is at too,” Lyden said.

“It’s nice to have gone as well as we have, but I’ve said to the girls all along I don’t really care if we lose, as long as we play well then I’ll be happy.

“We didn’t do that against Oberon, even though we won, the week before and the girls were pretty disappointed. We sat down and talked about that during the week and fixed what we needed to.”

Bird was thrilled with her side’s resilience against the previously untouchable Hawks.

“It’s definitely one of the fastest paced games I've played in,” she said.

“Going into the sheds at half-time 10-0 down we knew we'd need something pretty special to come back. We just all dug in and gave it all we had.”

Bird said with tries hard to come by at the death and her side trailing by one, there was only one option to take – the field goal.

“Snatching a point from them gives us a good confidence boost … no one else has been able to do it, it's almost like a win for us considering we had to come back from 12-0 down,” she added.