MALVERN RFC’s president Dave Robins has described their 115-0 defeat to runaway leaders Lichfield on Saturday as a “devastating experience” for the club.
But he firmly believes Malvern have enough resilience to bounce back from the thrashing as they look to maintain their status in Midlands One West.
The defeat, which was one of the heaviest in the club’s history, saw Nick Tisdale’s men leak 17 tries, with Greg Massey and Paul Maxwell-Keys both crossing the whitewash four times.
However, Robins revealed 16 first team players were either unavailable or ruled out through injury and he said it was just a case of fulfilling the fixture.
“You would perhaps look at the result and think what the hell has happened?” he said.
“But when you look behind the situation you will find out there were 16 players who were not there who would have made a difference.
“It was a devastating experience for the lads who turned out, but we have got to be thankful they did.
“You can’t not fulfil the fixture as you lay yourself open to points deduction, so we did and we did it to the best of our abilities.”
Robins, who is a former director of rugby at Spring Lane, said the players will now be determined to erase the loss from their memories when they host Whitchurch on Saturday (2.15pm).
“We have got to draw a line in the sand because we can’t have a post-mortem after a result like that as it was a one-off,” he added.
“It is a bit of a wake-up call and hopefully the side that turns out on Saturday against Whitchurch will want to take revenge for that result.
“We are certainly a good enough and a big enough club to bounce back from it and I am sure we will do – there’s no question about that.”