MALVERN secured their fourth double of the season with a 25-18 away victory – but had to contain a determined Nuneaton Old Edwardians fightback in the second-half.

The first period started well for the Spring Lane side in Midlands Two West (South) as they took the play to the hosts with a series of determined attacks.

A penalty took them into the home 22 and James Southall worked the ball well before second row Dave Smith scored a rare, but well-taken try.

Malvern dictated, snuffing out Nuneaton threats in midfield and taking play back into their half.

A penalty from 32 metres was kicked by Ben King to stretch Malvern’s lead and from the restart Conor Giggle made inroads to the home five-metre line.

Play was quickly switched to the other wing and Jordan Nwachukwu stormed through for a try with King converting.

Nuneaton fought back with several well-taken, long-range penalties, but Malvern regained their composure as Richard Fleming and Giggle combined well to close in on the home try line.

Craig Freeman won the ball, which was quickly moved through the backs for skipper Luke Milton to go over, giving Malvern a comfortable 20-6 lead at half-time.

The second half was a different affair as Nuneaton, galvanised by a talk from their coaches, came out with all guns blazing, testing Malvern deep in their own half for long periods.

Strong Malvern defence and Nuneaton errors kept the hosts from scoring and it was about halfway into the period before the Worcestershire side crossed into home territory, courtesy of a penalty.

From the resulting line-out, Malvern shunted the ball across the line and Nwachukwu scored his second try after a 40-metre run to secure the bonus point.

Nuneaton did not give up, scoring a try out wide as Malvern’s defence seemed to lose shape.

Spurred on by their crowd, the home side breached the middle of the defence once more to score a soft try, which gave them a losing bonus point.