MALVERN I XV 22, NEWPORT I XV 35.

MALVERN’S poor start to their Midlands One campaign continued when they crashed to a 35-22 defeat at the hands of second-placed Newport despite leading for long periods of the match.

The hosts fell to their seventh league loss in a row despite tries from Simon Daws, debutant Greg Summers, Ryan Henshaw and Richard Hobbs.

Malvern number eight Philip Rawle completed a miserable afternoon for his side at Spring Lane when he was sent off for serious foul play in the 69th minute.

The defeat means that Dave Robins’ side stay rooted to the bottom of the table and are still searching for their first points of the season.

The Shropshire outfit showed why they are one of the league’s top teams, controlling the first 15 minutes, pegging the hosts back into their own half and dominating early on.

The visitors took the lead through Jamie Simpson in the fifth minute and this early lead was extended four minutes later when Malvern’s Cameron Pimlow saw his attempted kick from his own try-line blocked by Simpson, who stormed over to score in the right-hand corner.

Full-back Toby Mann exploited a gap in the Malvern backline to go over in the 16th minute after a surging run.

Henshaw went over with full-back Chris Hooper converting in the 28th minute.

The home side must have feared a rout at this point but staged a quick recovery as they got their first points on the board.

The revival continued two minutes later when centre Summers gave Malvern the lead for the first time when he stole the ball in his own 22 and stormed through to the try-line after a 70-metre run.

But Newport came out much the better side at the start of the second-half when Mann and James Curgenven both scored tries and Simpson notched up a penalty.

Malvern did not surrender as flanker Daws finished off a lovely three-man move between the posts for his side’s fourth and final try of the afternoon with 21 minutes left of the thrilling contest.

Rawle’s dismissal followed shortly afterwards and Newport sealed their win with a 73rd minute try through Chris Taylor.