YORK RUFC snatched a 27-27 draw from the jaws of victory as late lapses proved their downfall at Old Brodleians.

An away win would have moved the visitors above the Halifax side in the Yorkshire One table. And encouraged by this, York made a strong start playing down the slope.

Centre Sam Forbes broke through the Brod defence and earned a penalty, which was kicked to the five-metre line only for the throw in to be judged not straight.

Following more York pressure, another line-out secured off the top ball for Forbes and Will Norris to crash forward. The hosts transgressed at the tackle and George Davies stroked over the penalty to put York 3-0 ahead.

It took 20 minutes for York to put together their next concerted phases of play as forwards and backs combined well to set winger Hugh Nicholson up with space for the line. He appeared to crash over, but was judged to have just been in touch.

York attacked again only to be foiled by the first of three interceptions, with Nicholson making amends with a solid cover tackle.

Busy no 8 Josh Parker broke 20 metres down the blind side to set up more attacking phases from which Davies converted the resulting penalty and made it 6-0 with 25 minutes played.

However, York indiscipline enabled the home side to gain decent territory for the first time. Good defence from a rolling maul and back ball was then wasted when full back Vine crossed over from a 5m scrum to bring the hosts back within a point.

York were showing good attacking intent but all too often basic errors thwarted them, and they were nearly made to pay for this as a Brods forward broke clear only to pass to Lewis Hannibal with the line at his mercy.

On the stroke of half-time, excellent quick line-out ball finally made its way to Tom Newitt who raced 20 metres, found his supporting players and after two more phases the ball was fed to Hannibal to plunge over the line.

Davies converted to make the score 13-5 in York's favour at the break.

There was a frantic start to the second half from both sides and a spilled ball from Brods allowed Newitt to scorch up the wing to within five metres before the home team managed to clear their lines.

Marc Benson and Will Atkin then attacked down each wing before the York pack took a Brods scrum against the head. Forbes bulldozed his way through the midfield before feeding Newitt who wriggled through three defenders to score.

Davies nailed another wide conversion, and the lead was 15 points with 45 minutes played.

Good work from Parker and captain Chris Fox went unrewarded as an attacking line-out came to nothing

And this was punished by Brods who put some excellent passages of play together, resulting in American prop Pritchard crashing over the line.

It was now York's turn to show flair following a mazy Nicholson run. Brods' clearance kick found Atkin who made ground and fed Newitt whose pace took him past the cover defence to feed inside for Liam Hessay to score under the posts.

Davies' simple conversion extended the visitors' advantage to 27-10.

Brods' kick-off failed to go ten metres and York were straight onto the attack, but as the ball went wide winger Hoyle picked off an easy interception to coast his way under the posts. Bracewell converted and the gap was ten points again.

Both sides lost a prop to the sin bin following a difference of opinion at a scrum.

And York errors continued, enabling Brods to launch a series of drives resulting in Pritchard grabbing his second try with five minutes remaining.

In the last minute, York were yet again unable to deal with the opposition runners and centre Clay went over for the inevitable score.

Happily for York, the conversion was wide, meaning the game ended all square at 27-27.