CINDERFORD II 53PTS, MALVERN II 20PTS

MALVERN Second XV travelled south to the Forest of Dean for a friendly head to head encounter with Cinderford.

The home pack used their weight and physical advantage from the the kick-off, keeping Malvern under siege in their own 22 for several minutes. The Malvern defence held strong and turned the tide with some skillful ball handling releasing Chris Williams down the right wing. Steve Bowen and Dave Smith secured quick ball at the ensuing ruck and Malvern spun the ball left stretching the Cinderford line to the full. With some last gasp tackling Cinderford managed to slow the ball down but Adam Dixon stood deep as the ball came back for Malvern and sent a 45-yard drop kick from just inside Cinderford's half sailing through the uprights to give Malvern a three point lead 10 minutes.

Cinderford slowly started to get on top moving the ball wide and the impressive back three combined to score two quick scores in the corner. Malvern countered moving the ball through quick hands and a series of phases resulted in an awarded penalty in front of the posts which Adam Dixon again made simple work of, two minutes later however Cinderford scored with a carbon copy of their first try.

Malvern continued to play a fast and aggressive game against a very well organised Cinderford defence, which eventually managed to turn the ball over 10 metres from their own line, but Joe Hill charged down the attempted clearance kick and Adam Dixon pounced on the loose ball for a try to put Malvern back in contention. From the kick-off Malvern again pinned the Cinderford defence into their own 22 but some agile running from the home teams full back turned the pressure into a last minute break away try to leave Malvern trailing 24-13 at half-time.

Cinderford began the second half playing open running rugby and moving the ball through forwards and backs scored three tries in ten minutes.

Malvern kept to the task, especially in the scrum where No 8 Ollie Banwell and scrum half Sam Jones did a magnificent job getting hands on ball at the back of the retreating scrums and getting over the gain line again and again to give Malvern an attacking platform moving forwards. This appeared to pay off minutes later as a rejuvenated Malvern pack drove the ball over the Cinderford line only for the referee to judge the ball held up.

Cinderford cleared their lines and took play deep into Malvern territory again to score another try.

Stand in captain Dave Wilkinson steadied the Malvern team and they stepped up the defence with some utterly ferocious tackling as Stuart Smith and Stuart Clark worked tirelessly to stem the Cinderford backline.

With five minutes to go the home team forwards brought the ball in tight and produced an energy sapping drive ten metres out to score again.

With the end of the game minutes away Liam Maloney picked up quick ruck ball and made several effective breaks around the fringes to get Malvern again camped out inside the Cinderford 22. Substitute Ryan Milne noticed the flat defence and called Dave Wilkinson to chip over, Milne got a foot to ball and beat the back three to touch down for a well deserved score.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Malvern 2nd XV visit Ludlow for their second league game.