Unlucky 13 for both sides

Bristol and Leeds fought out a 13-13 draw in a meaningless EDF Energy Cup match at the Memorial Stadium.

With Saracens having secured their place in the semi-finals, the teams made 11 changes from their last Premiership matches.

Bristol welcomed back skipper Matt Salter, who had missed the last two matches with a neck injury, at blindside flanker while Ireland international Kevin Maggs made his first appearance of the season since rejoining the club from Ulster.

Scrum-half Joe Bedford led Leeds for the first time while Scotland flanker Jon Dunbar returned after sustaining a torn hamstring in the second match of the season.

Dominated

Bristol dominated the early stages on a saturated pitch, pinnning Leeds back in their own half, but the visitors managed to keep their line intact until midway through the half when hooker David Blaney broke through a slack defence.

Fly-half Jason Strange, who had made the initial break, duly tagged on the extras from out wide.

The home side were reduced to 14 men on the half hour when lock Dave Attwood was sent to the sin-bin for offside and fly-half James Brooks reduced the arrears with a 25-metre penalty.

Brooks missed a second from a similar distance a couple of minutes later but on the stroke of half-time Strange landed a 40-metre penalty when Leeds were caught not releasing the ball to give Bristol a 10-3 lead.

Opportunity

Two minutes after the interval Brooks, now with the wind at his back, kicked a 22m penalty before the visitors took the lead for the first time five minutes later through Norway lock Erik Lund, with Brooks adding the conversion.

Bristol wasted an opportunity to level the scores 10 minutes later from a penalty which they opted to kick for the corner only to lose the lineout.

With less than 15 minutes remaining Strange slotted a penalty to level the scores and a draw was just about the fair result.

But with just 5,751 attracted to the Memorial Stadium, this was fairly low-key stuff.