MALVERN came up short on the banks of the River Avon when they were beaten 44-10 by a Newbold side who were the best side the Worcestershire club have played to date in Midlands Two West (South).

Malvern started brightly, moving the ball well for skipper Luke Milton to go over for a try early on, Ben King converting.

For the first half-hour it looked to be the Spring Lane side who were well in control.

There were a few breaks by the home team which threatened their defence, which was looking a little less well organised than in recent weeks.

However, the referee was quick to penalise Malvern repeatedly for not releasing, although it was evident that the Newbold forwards were going off their feet at the ruck.

This gave the Warwickshire side more momentum and they started to threaten Malvern with their loose forwards popping the ball with precision.

Although Milton put in a try-saving tackle, the ball was kicked to the corner and the winger sped in to score.

The hosts went ahead with a penalty before King retook the lead for Malvern with a penalty of his own, but Newbold responded with another three points to go into the interval with a single point lead.

A change of prop for Newbold saw them start to dominate at the scrum and, with Malvern’s line-out misfiring, the home team started to take control. They went further ahead with a try early in the second-half and, with Malvern giving away repeated penalties, Newbold grew in confidence.

After an exchange of views in the middle of the park, one player from each side was sin-binned and, from the resultant penalty, Newbold were again deep in Malvern territory.

From the line-out their centre made a strong run through the heart of a lack-lustre Malvern defence to score and convert with 20 minutes to go.

Play was then held up for some time due to an injury to Malvern’s Rory Jones, necessitating the call-out for an ambulance.

Thankfully, after an assessment in hospital, Jones was allowed home.

The home side then ended the match scoring three tries without answer to swap places in the table with Malvern.

Spring Lane director of rugby David Irish was disappointed with his team’s performance: “We were pretty disorganised in defence, which is usually one of our team strengths, and our line-out wasn’t working well either.

“Our players also have to realise that, having dropped two leagues, we aren’t getting the standard of refereeing we have been used to.”

Irish added: “Newbold played the official far better, showing they are much more streetwise and our lads need to be a bit better in that department.”