MALVERN condemned Nuneaton Old Edwardians to relegation from Midland Two West (South) with a 25-19 victory at Spring Lane.

With Nuns anxious to avoid the drop, they brought an uncompromising brand of forward-led game to try and dominate the lighter home pack.

Whilst their scrum had the upper hand in terms of weight, they pounded away at the Malvern line for long periods only to find that the home defence was sharp and solid.

Craig Freeman was sin-binned as Nuns upped their onslaught before finally forcing their way over for a try, which was unconverted, just before half time.

A promising Malvern move early in the second period was halted by an injury to a Nuneaton player.

The visiting scrum half then knocked on but it wasn’t spotted by the official and they drove upfield to score and convert.

Despite the blow, this proved a turning point as Malvern started to control the play more.

Jack Curtis broke and fed Ben Essenhigh for a stunning breakaway try to bring Malvern back into the game.

They were making inroads and a further penalty saw Ben King bring the score back to within four points.

From the restart Ieuan Mustow sped through the visiting midfield and fed the supporting Conor Giggle for a score to take the lead.

This was short lived as Nuns won a scrum and Southall collected and weaved his way through a dozing Malvern defence to score a converted try to put them six points ahead.

Back came the home side, driving away at a tiring Old Eds and Essenhigh went over, the crowd stirred but then groaned as King’s conversion came back off the post.

With a one point deficit and injury-time running out, it looked as though Malvern’s winning run may have been halted, especially as the line-out was not functioning well.

But Malvern cleared from defence, Curtis again showed his athleticism to storm down the line and evade some desperate tackles, popping the ball to full-back Niall Potter-Farrant, who went over to give King the extras.

Malvern now look forward to an era of growth under new director of rugby Rob Cook and local derby matches against Droitwich and Evesham, who gained promotion.