MALVERN Rugby Club came back down to earth after their demolition of Droitwich with an entertaining last-gasp 23-19 defeat to Dunlop at Spring Lane.

The hosts were the architects of their own downfall, kicking away good possession by failing to find touch and conceding needless penalties against competitive visitors.

The Coventry side’s pack was well-drilled and heavier, driving Malvern back at the first scrum and winning a penalty to go ahead.

Malvern responded and Richard Fleming broke, causing Dunlop to offend for a penalty to the five-metre line.

They went through the phases with skipper Luke Milton joining in and the ball went out to Ben King on the wing for the first try, which he also converted.

With the Dunlop forwards using their strength and weight advantage, Malvern had to use their skill and speed in the backs but kept running into heavy traffic.

A clearance failed to make touch and Dunlop ran the ball back before winning a penalty to put them a point behind.

Malvern lost Fleming to a recurrence of an old hand injury, giving Alex Stockwell his league debut.

The home side conceded penalties although the kicker missed the chance to put the Warwickshire side further ahead.

But again Malvern failed to find touch with a clearance and Dunlop came back to score a converted try, going into the break six points up.

At the start of the second half, Malvern lost the influential Will Gough with a knock to the head.

The visitors went further ahead when Conor Giggle was sin-binned and Dunlop scored from the resultant penalty.

Malvern stepped up a gear and started to force penalties, and as their intensity increased, King popped over three points to narrow the gap.

Malvern gained the upper hand in an absorbing match and Stuart Clark popped the ball for Laurie Essenhigh, who was illegally tackled, resulting in a sin-binning.

King slotted the penalty to put Malvern only three points behind.

When Milton and Stockwell made inroads, King kicked another three points to tie the game at 16-16.

King put another penalty between the posts to put them ahead in the final minutes.

But a penalty was conceded with a yellow for Malvern and Dunlop went through a string of pick-and-drive moves to force a winning converted try.