MALVERN 36PTS, WALSALL 5PTS

WALSALL stepped into the breech left by Whitchurch's refusal to play the North Midlands Cup semi-final on Saturday.

The visiting team from Britain's leather-producing capital have spent several seasons at Midlands One level and have had National League experience, and will be playing in Malvern's league next season, so a tough game was expected. However, the Malvern players decided that it was time to go through their complete repertoire, in keeping with the charity fundraising on offer and the warm-up feast supplied in the preceding Veterans match.

It only took three minutes for the first catch and drive move to give Lancett his seemingly obligatory score and Watkins a conversion. With the home pack out-muscling Walsall and securing good ball, Watkins at scrum half was able to set his backs away time after time. With Wilkinson using his guile to dictate the moves, Malvern posed a continual threat, as proved when Lamb secured the ball and it was moved along the line for Roberts to score. Walsall came back into the game and worked the ball patiently, stretching Malvern's defence to score, but the Spring Lane side continued to put the Staffordshire side's line under threat. A scrum was won and Hooper came through the middle of the visiting defence to run through and score a peach of a try, which Watkins converted.

Malvern rang the changes in the second half to give as many players as possible an outing, but didn't suffer because of the new line-up. From a quick free-kick, Fleming took the ball on and put in a delicate chip ahead that he secured to score and Watkins collected the extras.

Having seen the backs go through their repertoire, the forwards decided that it was time to take back some of the limelight. They put in a superbly controlled driving maul, travelling 27 metres to the line for Nick Tisdale to score, then repeated the feat to close proceedings, Tisdale again claiming the score.

Director of rugby David Robins said: "The Walsall coach told me that our pack was the equal of many in Midlands One. I was pleased and extremely grateful that they sent almost their full team at such short notice and we look forward to seeing them again next season. Our backs certainly showed what they could do today, whilst the pack was once again quite awesome. It's a tribute to Nick Tisdale's coaching that we have improved so much this year and now have a unit that everyone respects.

"We now look forward with anticipation to the delayed semi-final against Whitchurch this Saturday and hope for a big crowd to cheer Malvern through to the final.

"Our lads know it won't be easy - Whitchurch have been playing in the equivalent Northern league, where the standard of rugby is reputedly harder, so they are under no illusions about the task ahead."

The cup match is due to be played tomorrow (Saturday) at Spring Lane, kick-off 3pm.