Thrilling draws are the order of the day

THERE were shared spoils aplenty in Divsion Two of the Bill Beaumont Cup as

Warwickshire and North Midlands played out one of the most remarakble games of rugby this season in a thrilling 56-56 draw.

Sam Montieri’s last-gasp try for North Midlands snatched an unlikely tie after they had been 28-12 down at half-time.

Morgan Johnson scored two tries and Aiden Cheshire also crossed in the final ten minutes to complete the comeback.

Elsewhere Hampshire remain at the top of Pool 2 on points difference, after a late penalty from fly-half Pierre-Alex Clark earned them a 36-36 draw with

Somerset at Gosport Park. The sides were evenly matched but it was the visitors who went into the break 20-26 ahead as Somerset were guilty of missed tackles.

Somerset had secured a bonus point thanks to tries from hooker Dave Wheeler, full-back Harry Butland, Mitch Spencer and fly-half Kieran Hill, who also added three conversions.

Hampshire claimed their try-scoring bonus point shortly after the restart through centre Wayne Dugan, who had crossed for their first after six minutes.

Their other touchdowns came from Harry Carr and full-back Matt Fearnes.

Fly-half Clark added a conversion in each half as well as four second-half penalties, including the vital three points two-minutes from time despite his side having a man in the sin-bin.

Meanwhile, Durham produced a dominant firsthalf performance to beat

Staffordshire 41-14 at Lichfield.

Fraser Wilson got the visitors off to the perfect start, going over after just two minutes and that was backed up by four more tries from the northern county in a bruising opening 40 minutes.

The hosts rallied in the second half with a late try from Kevin Birt but Durham’s overall quality proved the difference to secure a bonus-point win. And at Egremont,

Leicestershire cruised past Cumbria 52-18.