MALVERN stormed into the North Midlands Shield quarter-finals with a comfortable 51-0 success at Woodrush.

The Birmingham side had finished third in the league below Midlands Two West (South) side Malvern.

But the Spring Lane side took the first-round tie by the scruff of the neck from the off as they pounded the home defence.

Conor Giggle finished off a move started by Richard Hobbs and Richard Fleming to take an early lead.

Fleming was outstanding until being forced to leave the field with a hand injury after 25 minutes.

Tom Waller came on for his first XV debut as the back line was reshuffled but was skipper Luke Milton, with a scything and cleverly angled 40-metre run, was next to score.

With the score at 0-12 on the changeover, the feeling was Malvern had been slowly prising Woodrush apart and that proved to be the case as they stepped up the pressure in the second-half.

With almost total dominance in the line-out and at the set scrums, Malvern kept the home side penned back.

Richard Hobbs, relishing his conversion from back row to hooker, took a strike against the head, a ruck formed and quick passing saw Ben King go over to increase the lead.

Will Gough came on for his debut and slotted seamlessly into the back row following his move from Tenbury.

Laurie Essenhigh was next on the scoresheet as he nipped cheekily in round the blind side from 10 metres out, then Giggle made it two on the day as Malvern went through their paces.

Far quicker to the breakdown, the back row of Sam Parsons, Stuart Clarke, Gough and, later, Joe Wilks were setting up great ball for Essenhigh and Joe Budd to feed the back line, although Parsons was next to score.

Tom Hale, back after an injury-plagued year, showed how good he is with several runs which stretched the defence and he was rewarded with a fine try.

The Malvern try fest was rounded off by front-row re - placement and former centre Grant Fraser.

Malvern, who will head to Camp Hill in the quarter- finals, open their league cam - paign at Berkswell and Balsall on Saturday (3pm).

Evesham lost 49-5 at Moseley Oak in the same competition.