Malvern 22, South Leicester 27.

MALVERN crashed to a fourth successive defeat in National Three Midlands despite a dogged display.

The hosts came out of the blocks at full speed as returning full-back Tommi Hughes made a lightning break to link up with debutant Mike Lau Leong for the number eight to power over for a second-minute score, Tommy Hayes putting over the conversion.

The much more positive showing from Malvern got the crowd buzzing early on, but a promising break turned sour as South’s winger Curtis intercepted to run through to score in the eighth minute.

Three minutes later the visitors went ahead with a Lord penalty after an infringement at the ruck, but Malvern responded with a period of intense pressure from both forwards and backs, winning a penalty, which Hayes calmly put over to retake the lead.

In the 16th minute the influential stand-off put over a 38-metre kick as Malvern again forced South into infringing, then Jimmy Aston and Simon Daws went on a charge to threaten once more.

However, the Leicester men won a penalty to relieve the pressure and then penetrated Malvern territory with another one to touch.

From the resulting line-out, a catch-and-drive move saw March level the scores.

As the game continued with fast and furious end-to-end moves from both sides, defences had to be on their mettle, as Tom Longley made some saving tackles.

Malvern looked far sharper than of late, James Thomas put in another excellent performance at prop, both in the tight and the loose, as the Malvern pack were more than equal to the bigger visiting unit.

Daws, Humphreys and Lau Leong posed a constant threat.

Malvern should have made more headway after March was sin-binned, but only had another long-range penalty score from Hayes to show for it.

Five minutes before the break, South took a quick free-kick, forcing their way to the Malvern line. Bale scored for Lord’s conversion to give the visitors the lead.

Hayes retook the honours with another penalty after the Malvern pack put the opposing eight under pressure at the scrum, but he then had to leave the field with an ankle injury, which was to prove costly.

South Leicester put in a long period of pressure, aided by some poor hosts’ line-out play, but the Malvern defence held well and they countered, winning a penalty which was just short of the posts.

A couple of misses by each side followed, then a Malvern kick ahead saw Richard Fleming make a big hit on two defenders simultaneously to win a penalty that Hughes put over to give his side a two-point advantage.

But South countered with a power drive ending with Truijens touching down and Lord converting for the victory.