Darlington Mowden Park 20 Coventry 20

WHAT had been a dour contest for 60 minutes finally built up to a dramatic climax as Mowden's latest fly half, Josh Bragman, landed the equalising conversion with the final kick.

The Hartlepool-born player was signed in the summer after impressing for Durham County, but has had to wait his turn in the No 10 shirt.

He could have heard a pin drop as he lined up the kick from wide on the left six minutes into added time. But he held his nerve to bisect the uprights and earn the unlikely draw.

Mowden led 6-3 with 20 minutes left, but looked to have shot themselves in the foot when they conceded two tries in quick succession.

The 17-6 deficit galvanised them, however, and they made a surprisingly inept Coventry side pay for their continual blunders.

Twice Mowden laid siege to the line before forcing their way over, but inbetween Coventry kicked the penalty which ensured they wouldn't lose.

The visitors should have been streetwise enough to run the clock down from that point, but they coughed up possession and allowed replacement scum half Maia Gibbs to launch a counter-attack Mowden used the momentum to drive on and pounded at the line until hooker James Penman crashed over. The conversion denied big-spending Coventry a win they scarcely deserved.

The visitors showed some early hints of fluency after Mowden began with strong break from winger Will Murray, only to be penalised at a five-metre scrum.

This prefaced the sadly familiar tale of the scrums failing to live up to the referee's wishes. Coventry were twice penalised before the ball had gone in and reacted by replacing their hooker and loose head before half-time.

It didn't help them achieve the expected dominance at the line-out, largely because the target was often missed, whereas Mowden always hit Joe Craggs. They relied on him almost exclusively because he is easy to lift.

After penalties were exchanged Mowden lost Luca Petillo to the sin bin for what was deemed a dangerous tackle. But after kicking the penalty to the corner Coventry failed to win the ball, sparking a series of errors which culminated in Bragman kicking his second penalty.

His well-struck attempt to make it 9-3 three minutes after half-time came back off an upright and the stalemate continued until a penalty for a high tackle was kicked to touch by Coventry.

This time they drove the line-out and when the ball was released the fly half chipped ahead and a kind bounce produced try.

Four minutes later an ambitious Mowden pass went to ground and the visiting right winger gathered the ball and sprinted in from halfway.

Mowden's spirited response first produced a try for replacement centre James Fitzpatrick and the final try was almost a carbon copy.