MALVERN’S director of rugby has said his side showed great determination as they ended Spartans’ 22-game home winning streak with a 29-10 victory.
Tries from James Southall, skipper Luke Milton, James Redfearn and Rory Jones and nine points from Ben King with the boot wrapped up the win for Dave Irish’s side in Midlands Two West (South) on Saturday.
Irish said he was extremely happy with the outcome of their first ever visit to the Sutton Coldfield outfit.
“Spartans are a tough side, as witnessed by their 22-game home winning streak, and we managed to halt that,” said Irish.
“To come away to a home fortress like this and take the points shows great determination, especially as the conditions were not ideal.
“Our fitness and mobility allowed us to dictate large swathes of the game and in truth we weren’t completely at our best
Malvern got into their stride early on as George Roberts made a 50m dash through the Spartans defence, before the ball went along the line for Southall to go over and King to convert for the lead.
As Malvern continued to press, Dixon once again made a telling break, but a deliberate knock-on by Spartans foiled the move. From the resultant penalty, King stretched the lead to 10-0.
After half time and playing downfield but against the wind, Malvern continued to run the ball at every opportunity, but again a promising scoring opportunity was foiled by a knock-on.
The pressure and running some excellent lines eventually told for the visitors as captain Milton went through to extend the lead and King converted.
Spartans pulled back three points from a penalty then had a good spell of possession without really threatening as Malvern’s defence held firm.
Roberts again broke, Dixon followed up, Malvern won a scrum and the ball was again moved well, flanker Rory Jones making ground to feed James Redfearn for a try which King again converted.
Spartans eventually got their first try on the board, but the conditions then saw several knock-ons from both sides before Spartans, using the wind to their advantage, once again got into Malvern’s 22, but some great defence kept them at bay.
Back on the attack, Grant Fraser almost got through, then another Dixon half-break won a penalty, quickly taken, and the ball was shipped to Rory Jones for the bonus point try and a hard earned win which keeps Malvern at the top end of the table.
Malvern next take on Old Yardleians in the North Midlands Shield on Saturday (2pm).