Malvern 31 Droitwich 14

ALTHOUGH the result was emphatic at Spring Lane on Saturday, it masked the fact that it probably should have been well over 50 points for Malvern.

Such was their dominance in the first half that it was almost 25 minutes before the visitors got into the Malvern half.

Despite this, Malvern failed to turn all their possession into points as the fast pace wasn’t quite enough.

Droitwich responded in the ten minutes before half time, putting in a series of forward drives using their big men and winning a succession of penalties, finally hacking the ball on to win the chase and score a try which was converted.

With only a three-point cushion instead of a commanding lead at the break, Malvern director of rugby Dave Irish pointed out some home truths to his side, especially that they had become sloppy round the fringes and that they needed to be sharper and more direct.

He brought George Roberts on, a combative player who relishes ball carrying and taking on defences.

He immediately made a difference, but Malvern still continued to make basic errors to frustrate both themselves and the supporters on the touchline.

Hale collected after Luke Milton ran from defence, putting in 60-metre surging run but was frustrated close to the try line.

Malvern stole the ball after a Droitwich lineout and then won a penalty to take them into the away 22-metre area.

Winning the lineout, George Withers having been exceptionally accurate all afternoon, a ruck was formed and scrum half Laurie Essenhigh cheekily nipped through to score, King converting.

As the relentless pace of Malvern’s game saw Droitwich tiring, Tom Waller made a break at stand-off and fed the ball back to Essenhigh, who strolled in to set up another King conversion.Shortly after Milton again broke from defence and Hale, who was desperately unlucky not to be on the scoresheet, put in another blistering chase into the Droitwich 22 but the ball was knocked on.

It was left to Roberts to collect the bonus point for Malvern as he snaffled up a loose ball and went on a run which saw six defenders bounce off him en route to the best try of the afternoon, King again converting.

Droitwich put in a late rally to give the score an air of respectability, but in truth Malvern should have clocked up a good half-century on the day.

Irish was sanguine after the match, saying: “We got what we came for, five points and a fairly convincing win.

But the lads know that a bit more patience in the build up is what’s needed, taking the ball in and sucking in the back rows before releasing it to the speed merchants.

“We also were a bit too flat in for the conditions — a dry pitch encourages hitting the line at speed, but we were taking the ball at a slow pace today and not making the most of our talents.

“However, it’s still early in the season and we have two training sessions in which to improve before our trip to Dunlop in Coventry on Saturday.”

So eager were they to get on the winning trail that the ball was shipped out to the backs at every opportunity, much too early in most cases, which allowed the Droitwich drift defence to put in lastditch tackles.

However, Malvern were so dominant that a score was bound to happen and after Tom Hale had put in a couple of searing runs to put fear into the visiting full back, they put in a move which saw Will Gough go over to score, Ben King converting.

With Sam Parsons in typical bandit mode, Malvern stole Droitwich ball time and again and King made no mistake with a penalty from 40 metres out to increase the lead.