Bridgnorth's RFU Twickenham dream is over

The All Blacks were leading 14-3 with ten minutes left but ended up nudged out of the tie 16-14, despite dominating most of the play at their league rivals.

Leek captain Gary McDermott held his nerve to kick two penalties and then converted an injury-time try from Naz Narawa, which clinched a breathless win.

Bridgnorth must be sick of the sight of McDermott, who also hit a last minute winning score in the Midlands Two West North fixture on their turf earlier this season.

The sin-binning of captain and hooker Dan Griffiths then replacement flanker Craig Thomas also twice reduced Bridgnorth to 14 men, as they conceded late on.

Chairman of selectors Simon Pennington said: "The lads are, obviously, very disappointed, they know themselves that they could and should have won the game.

"We have unbelievably bad luck against Leek. It's the third time we have lost to them, by two points twice and once by three, and we were playing most of the rugby.

"I think we were the better side, for 70 minutes of the game, but it was just one of those things you couldn't really control. The sin binning didn't help us, either.

"Fair play to Leek, they never game up and kept going, but we are kicking ourselves thinking that we were the superior team on the day. We should have held out.

"There were a couple of mistakes and a bit of indecision, it's just down to experience really."

There were just two minutes on the clock when Bridgnorth conceded a penalty in front of the posts to go 3-0 down, but Will Biddell hauled them level from the spot.

A good break by Dave Hadkiss allowed Ben Rochelle to drive forward with Griffiths for support, with Darren Brick driving Leek back to earn a penalty for Biddell.

Luke Stevens then scorched through to score half-way out, with Biddell coming close with the kick but later making it right to give Bridgnorth an 11-3 half-time lead.

They went further in front after the break with another penalty from Biddell, before the visitors declined an easier chance on the left, opting to go for the line-out.

Had the kick gone over at 17-3, Leek would had to score 15 points to win. Griffiths and Thomas' exit left no recognised hooker, so prop Matt Griffiths joined the front row.