DAN Todd kicked a late penalty to book Oxford Harlequins’ place in the Oxfordshire Cup final with a 20-17 win at 14-man Banbury Bulls.

The scores were level with less than five minutes left, but the fly half showed nerves of steel to give his side a shot at winning the competition for the first time since 2014.

The contest had been framed by a red card for home scrum half Justin Parker in the opening ten minutes for an apparent stamp.

Tries from Toni Turetta, Archie van Dijk and Johnnie Henderson helped secure victory for Quins, with Chris Davies, Dan Brady and Tom Burman crossing for the hosts.

The result guarantees a new name on the trophy for the first time since 2015, breaking Banbury’s run of four consecutive triumphs.

Standing in Quins’ way will be either Chinnor’s 2nd XV – the Falcons – or Oxford University Greyhounds, who contest the other semi-final at Iffley Road tomorrow.

An even affair was blown wide open by Parker’s controversial red card, with the home side protesting that their man was simply trying to remove a prone player from a ruck.

Banbury took time to adjust to being a man down and their opponents took advantage, Turetta opening the scoring and Dan Todd converting.

A yellow card for Allan Purchase following a deliberate knock-on gave the hosts a route back into the game.

They kicked the resulting penalty into the corner and scored from the line-out, Chris Davies touching down on the back of a rolling maul.

With Purchase still off the field Banbury went ahead, Dan Brady diving over to make it 10-7 at the break.

The lock returned after the restart and van Dijk touched down as he profited from a rolling maul.

The hosts re-took the lead when some skilful play from the backs released Burman, Ed Phillips converting to make it 17-12.

Banbury were in the ascendancy but that was as good as it got, with Quins drawing level through a slice of luck.

A kick in their own half was charged down but fell perfectly for Turetta, who broke into the visitors’ territory.

He drew the last defender before offloading to Henderson, who scored in the corner.

Banbury’s Kieran Fitzgibbon was then sin-binned for a high tackle but Quins could not mark their two-man advantage with a try.

All they needed was Dan Todd’s penalty, which signalled a period of heavy pressure from the hosts in the final moments.

Despite Jack Todd’s yellow card, they could not make it count.