MALVERN worked hard to secure a second league double of the campaign with a 13-0 win at Leamington in Midlands Two West (South).

Second-half tries by Richard Fleming and Jordan Nwachukwu helped Malvern to a battling triumph in a biting wind on a sticky, undulating pitch.

While Malvern put in a dazzling display of open rugby against Droitwich the previous week, they tried to replicate that performance in less than ideal conditions at Leamington and fell short of their high standards.

However, the Spring Lane men came away with four points and the satisfaction of shutting out Leamington.

Malvern started brightly, spreading the ball wide after an Ollie Rayner break, and they got into the home 22 only to be penalised at the scrum for not binding.

Every time Leamington had the ball, they were stifled in the middle of the park by a determined Malvern defence.

When Malvern finally got deep into away territory with a penalty, Leamington stole the line-out ball to clear the danger.

The hosts had a good period of possession but failed to make any headway against a strong defence until a well-flighted kick was caught and their winger appeared to score but was ruled by the referee to have had a foot in touch.

After the scare, Malvern tightened their defensive play even more to put a stranglehold on any Leamington breaks.

But the visitors' own attacks broke down through a combination of dropped passes, knock-ons or them needlessly kicking the ball away to set up their Warwickshire opponents in attack.

However, half-time was reached without any prospect of a score from either side.

After the interval, Malvern had the slope advantage and put in several attacks without managing to penetrate the Leamington defence.

At last the deadlock was broken when Malvern were awarded a penalty on the home 22-metre line and Ben King slotted over to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

Malvern upped the tempo, keeping Leamington penned in their own half and Fleming added to the scoresheet when he intercepted on halfway and stormed through to score a try.

After a couple of failed attacking attempts, which broke down as the ball was kicked away, Malvern again spun the ball wide and Nwachukwu used his power to muscle over in the corner and make sure of the win.

Malvern president David Robins was delighted with the away triumph.

“Sometimes it is necessary to grit the teeth and just keep applying the game-plan and this was the scenario at Leamington,” he said.

“The cold undoubtedly affected handling and the greasy conditions didn’t help but Malvern insisted on trying to play a running game even when the sensible option would have been to play more in the forwards.”

Malvern have a rest week before playing Spartans in the league a week on Saturday with the match preceded by a former players' lunch.

Meanwhile, second-from-bottom Upton slipped further into Midlands Three West (South) relegation trouble with a 17-15 home defeat to fourth-placed Old Wheatleyans.