MALVERN I 21, SOUTH LEICESTER I 17.

MALVERN’S resurgence continued at Spring Lane although a feisty South Leicester second-half display came close to spoiling the party.

The hosts hit the ground running with Simon Daws’ well-timed and angled run setting up a second minute breakthrough try from stand-off Cameron Pimlow and a conversion from full-back Chris Hooper.

With the home side looking full of confidence the visitors were under the cosh and after a four-phase move, from the Malvern pack, the ball was sent out wide for winger Tom Beechey to speed in for a sixth minute score.

From the re-start Malvern kicked deep and followed up quickly to force South Leicester onto the back foot and they conceded a penalty which Hooper scored for a 15- point cushion, which it transpired was to be needed.

The East Midlands side started to put their game together, taking the ball into contact and popping it up to their support players, obviously a well-tried routine from their training field.

They probed and stretched the Malvern defence, which was covering magnificently.

James Martin continued his impressive form with a turnover for Pimlow to make the clearance. For most of the half Malvern pinned South Leicester in their own midfield zone with some controlled pick and drive moves from the pack, Gareth Taylor prominent as ever.

The visiting back row limited the yardage gains, but Malvern were in the driving seat until they conceded a long range penalty put over by stand off Mark Lord.

Hooper replied in kind three minutes before the break, but then slipped in his own 22-metre area to give the visitors a scrum, from which they took the ball over with number eight Chris Vale touching down and Lord converting.

Buoyed by this crucial score, the South Leicester pack upped their effort and continued their forward dominated tactics of recycling and playing around the fringes to test Malvern’s defence.

The home tackling was sound until the 52nd minute, when Lord finally went through a gap to score and convert his try, bringing the deficit back to a single point.

On the hour, Vale was sin-binned for hands in the ruck and Hooper opened the gap to four points, which was the signal for a fast and furious final quarter, the rugby of greater intensity than anything seen all season.

Pimlow attempted a long range drop goal which fell short, as did a long range penalty attempt with 10 minutes of normal time left.

South Leicester then camped in the Malvern 22-metre area, trying to suck in the home defence and finding the men in maroon equal to everything they had thrown at them.

The big crowd got behind the Malvern boys, superbly marshalled by Daws and scrum-half Dave Hadkiss. Penalties were inevitably conceded, but needing a try, South Leicester kept opting for the scrum, which Malvern held during Saturday’s clash.

With over 80 minutes played, Malvern won a penalty, which should have been the signal for the final whistle, but the kick was too long and failed to make touch, so the drama continued until almost 10 minutes of overtime had been played.

Finally Malvern’s defence swamped the South Leicester attack and won another penalty, which this time was put safely away.