Preston Grasshoppers 35, Tynedale 36:Tale of two late penalties ends in a defeat for Hoppers on the final day

Ironically, in a match of five tries apiece, it all came down to two late penalty kicks.

Tynedale fly-half Josh Leslie landed a 40-metre effort five minutes from time, but Preston Grasshoppers centre Ed Keohane could not emulate his feat from five metres further out in stoppage time.So Tynedale went home with five points to stay sixth in National League Two North, while Hoppers took two points to remain 11th.At the end of his last fixture as director of rugby, Alex Keay said he would have liked to have been in the top eight but was not overly disappointed.“We’ve worked hard on that team and they’ve got better,” he said. “We’re in a better place than when I started. We’re an established side now, we’ve made advances in terms of attack and we defended well at times today – but we still give away soft tries. We’ve got to make less mistakes.”Hoppers started badly, with two big handling errors, but recovered to hold Tynedale up over the line. From there, it was swings and roundabouts all afternoon.The visitors scored first through full-back Joe Beatty, Leslie converting, but a jinking run by flyhalf Rory Brand brought Hoppers a try for skipper Scott Richardson, converted by Keohane.A long pass put Tynedale winger Will Roberts in for an unconverted score and the hosts’ season-long struggles at the line-out again cost them promising field positions, before they finally got one right and saw Rob Willetts drive over, with Keohane adding the conversion to take the lead for the first time.Despite having flanker Henry Wainwright in the sinbin, Tynedale edged ahead at half-time with Beatty’s second converted try after a difficult bounce from a kick-through caught the home defence at sixes and sevens.Hoppers regained the lead just 30 seconds after the break, Jacob Browne’s brilliant run finding try-scoring support from prop Mike Ashdown. Keohane again added the extras.But a clean scoring break by centre Euan Forlow and Leslie’s two points made it 21-26, before Richardson got his second try (and ninth of the season), once more converted by Keohane.The scoring merry-go-round continued with replacements Ralph Johnston, for Tynedale, and Jake Pope, for Hoppers, both claiming converted tries.So it all came down to those last two penalties and a bitter end to the home side’s three-match unbeaten run on their own patch.