Bristol and Leeds Carnegie, both of whom had nothing to play for in the EDF Energy Cup, drew 13-13 in front of just 5,751 at the Memorial Stadium.

With Saracens having secured their place in the semi-finals from this group the teams made 11 changes from their last Premiership matches and the game went ahead only after a pitch inspection following heavy rain and hailstorms in the west country over the past few days.

Bristol welcomed back skipper Matt Salter, who had missed the last two matches with a neck injury, at blindside flanker while Kevin Maggs made his first appearance of the season since rejoining the club from Ulster in the summer.

Scrum-half Joe Bedford led Leeds for the first time while Scotland flanker Jon Dunbar returned after sustaining a torn hamstring in the second match of the season.

Bristol dominated the early stages, pinnning Leeds back in their own half, but they managed to keep their line intact until midway through the half when hooker David Blaney broke through a slack defence.

Fly-half Jason Strange, who had made the initial break, duly added the extras from out wide.

The home side were reduced to 14 men on the half hour when lock Dave Attwood was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes for offside and fly-half James Brooks reduced the arrears with the resulting 25-metre penalty from the left of the uprights.

Brooks missed a second from a similar distance a couple of minutes later from the other side but on the stroke of half-time Strange landed a 40-metre penalty when Leeds were caught not releasing the ball at the tackle to give Bristol a 10-3 lead.

Two minutes after the interval Brooks, now with the wind at his back, kicked a 22m penalty before the visitors took the lead for the first time five minutes later through Norway lock Erik Lund, with Brooks adding the conversion.

Bristol wasted an opportunity to level the scores 10 minutes later from a penalty which they opted to kick for the corner only to lose the resulting lineout from 10m.

With less than 15 minutes remaining Strange slotted a penalty to level the scores.