MALVERN RFC 31, HINCKLEY RFC 8.

MALVERN’S revival continued at Spring Lane on Saturday as they hosted old rivals Hinckley.

The trip to Leicestershire had resulted in a 29-0 reverse a few weeks before, and David Robins’ side were determined to show that they could turn their fortunes around.

They did so in style, with a blistering display of rugby in the first 20 minutes of the game which shook the visitors with its intensity.

Ryan Henshaw and Greg Summers tested their opposite wingers early on, Malvern forced Hinckley back in their own half and the first scrum of the day saw James Hynes break from the back to link up with Jamie Gwynne and Andy Murphy was on hand to score in the fifth minute, Chris Hooper popping over the conversion.

The confidence running through the Malvern team was obvious to all in the crowd as Hinckley struggled to cope.

Skipper Ryan Watkins and Henshaw and stand-off Tom Longley switched the ball around, Hynes drove close to the line, then Summers put in a testing run to stretch the visiting defence.

On the quarter hour Malvern won a penalty, took the resulting line-out and Longley’s break resulted in Summers storming through the opposition back line to score.

Hooper again claimed the extra points, then again displayed his rediscovered kicking form with a penalty five minutes later.

As Malvern continued to dominate, Hinckley rarely got out of their own half, and it took a couple of penalties to get them into kicking range for stand-off Keeling to grab three points.

Their woes continued as their influential hooker Massarella came off injured and Malvern finished the half strongly.

Two minutes into the second period Malvern fielded the ball in broken play, it was worked up the short side to Summers, and the winger again left the defence standing to pick up his second score and Hooper put over the conversion.

With Gareth Taylor and Dave Smith dominating the line-out and James Martin and Simon Daws creating mayhem at flanker, Hinckley were being given no room for manoeuvre, whilst in the set scrums Murphy, Greenwood and Clark were locking things up.

When Martin was replaced by Phil Rawle, the change was seamless and Malvern continued to exert extra pressure. Following two good phases, Hynes made inroads then Rawle got onto the scoreboard, giving Hooper his fourth conversion of the day.

Even when Hynes was rested by the referee’s yellow card, Malvern continued to dominate.

Daws stole the ball and Malvern moved it upfield, Keeling deliberately knocked on to go into the sin bin.

The visitors gathered a loose ball and worked it well downfield for winger Evan Morgan to score, but Malvern’s domination had been complete.