Hereford 3 Malvern 31

Although Hereford were already doomed to relegation, Malvern’s players knew that the Wyeside team would raise their game for reasons of local pride. So it proved during a first half which saw Malvern’s repeated forays into home territory repelled by some stout defending. It took 20 minutes for the deadlock to be broken despite Hereford having a player sin-binned for a deliberate knock on. Adam Dixon slotted a penalty, but the home side equalised with one from Powell three minutes later after Malvern were penalised as Hereford responded from the restart. Malvern then charged upfield, a Hereford tackler didn’t roll away and Dixon bagged another penalty to restore the advantage.  The Wyesiders put in some forward phases to get deep into Malvern territory, but Malvern turned the ball over, Tom Longley fielded and broke upfield, the ball went across the line and James Southall sprinted through to score out wide. Malvern continued to dominate for the rest of the half, only their through the insistence on over-elaboration letting them down.

With the advantage of the slope in the second half, and superior fitness levels starting to tell, Malvern stayed well in control of the game, although they continued to be a little wasteful. However, the pack, superbly led by skipper Matt Williams, continued their match-long dominance and allowed the backs a plentiful supply of good ball as they began to wear down the Hereford front eight. From a hack on, Longley picked up and broke, the ball went to Ryan Watkins, who ghosted through and the floodgates started to open. The final quarter saw Malvern play some dazzling rugby as Luke Milton broke from the back to join the line, but hooker Matt Humphreys’ pass unfortunately found a Hereford player with the line beckoning.  However, Malvern won the ball back, recycled it down the short side and Southall was again on hand to score.  From the restart, Malvern gathered and ran through the for Ieuan Mustow to get on the score sheet, and the final flourish came four minutes from time as Mustow made a telling break to put Southall in at the corner for his hat trick try. The Malvern team were understandably delighted to take the local bragging rights, but as skipper Williams said “We knew that they had nothing to play for but pride and made us work hard for the win.” The game was played in good spirit by two sides that wanted to entertain the big crowd and were allowed to do so by the excellent referee Clare Hodnett.

Malvern finish the season with a home game against Manchester this Saturday, who have won their last two home matches to end a drought of 80 plus games without a win.  Kick off at Spring Lane is 3.00pm.