SOUTH LEICESTER 27 MALVERN I XV 19.

MALVERN RFC are still searching for their first Midlands One win after losing a tight game in wet and windy conditions.

Five minutes in, Malvern were guilty of going off their feet at the breakdown and were punished by a well-struck penalty by home stand-off Matt Lord.

Then in 11th minute penalty from in front of the posts was missed by Dimond. On 26 minutes, South won a lineout and spun the ball out to their bulky right-wing Griffin, who broke two tackles to score in the corner. Lord converted to make the score 10-0.

Malvern’s Pimlow glided past four defenders without a man laying a hand on him to score by the posts. Inexplicably Dimond missed the 29th minute conversion from in front of the posts to leave the score at 10-5 On 36 minutes, the South blind-side flanker was sin-binned for killing the ball in an effort to stem the pressure applied by Malvern. Hooper was next to miss from the subsequent penalty.

The ball then shot out of the retreating home scrum and Hobbs was quickest to seize the ball and feed the back-line. Centre Martin broke the line and went over in the tackle. The referee declared that the ball was held-up and awarded a 5m attacking scrum. Jones picked up, fed Gwynne who put in Henshaw to make amends with a try in the corner.

Into a near gale, Hooper missed the conversion.

The second-half saw South back in the lead after a converted try to make it 17-10.

But Malvern redoubled their efforts and made the score 17-13 through a Huw Dimond penalty.

This was followed by two more penalties to leave the match nicely poised at 19-17.

Unfortunately, the lead did not last long and South’s Thomas scored his second try of the afternoon with five minutes to go. Lord was awarded the conversion despite the ball going wide. Lord followed this up with a late penalty.