MALVERN turned in a scintillating second-half performance to take five Midlands Two West (South) points and go second in the table with a 44-31 victory over Old Yardleians.

The game was played at a high tempo from the off as Yards drove to the Malvern 22 and were rebuffed by fine defence, before Luke Milton broke from full-back.

Malvern opened the scoring when James Southall made a break and flanker Rory Jones was on hand to touch down.

This didn’t last long as Yards, playing to their strength of huge forwards, put in a 30-metre driving maul to level the scores, with the conversion giving them the lead.

When Malvern fumbled the restart they were punished, as the Birmingham side spun the ball wide for their speedy winger to score again.

Yards went further ahead when they were awarded a penalty but still Malvern continued to run the ball at their opposition.

However, a slow ball was intercepted by the Yards centre, who ran in a try from 90 metres.

The conversion left Malvern with a three-score deficit but they still stuck to their running game.

Malvern won a scrum and went down the short side for Connor Giggle to score and leave Malvern only 14 points down at the break.

The signs were already there that Yards were not as fit as Malvern and this was to prove crucial in the second-half.

From the restart, Malvern continued to play their expansive game, putting in three phases to take them to the Yards’ 22-metre area and Giggle darted in for a second try.

Malvern were on fire and Jones sealed his man-of-the-match status with several great carries before the ball was moved wide for Tom Hale to go over in the corner.

The deficit was now only four points but when both hookers were sin-binned, Yards were awarded a penalty and they put in a catch-and-drive to score a converted try, putting them back in front by 11 points.

With the crowd roaring them on, Malvern carried on running the ball and Hale went over, Ollie Rayner converting, and the deficit was back to four points with plenty of time to play.

Laurie Essenhigh made a break and fed Milton who once again found Hale and he ran in to retake the lead with Rayner’s conversion putting Malvern 34-31 ahead.

The influential stand-off then put over a penalty from 35 metres out to give Malvern a six-point cushion with 10 minutes left.

Malvern needed another score to ensure a win and they duly obliged.

Jack Longley’s chase forced a Malvern scrum and Richard Fleming went over, but had the ball knocked away before grounding.

Undeterred, Malvern then won a line-out and put in a catch-and-drive move for Sam Parsons to bag a converted try.