Malvern leave Burton battered

Few teams visit Burton's Peel Croft stronghold and score many points, even fewer come away with such a comprehensive victory as did Malvern last Saturday.

The day started with a both sides and the crowd observing a commemorative silence in honour of Burton's long-serving former President Dave Bowen, who died earlier in the week, and whose son had played for Malvern.

Generous hosts off the field, the Staffordshire side are notoriously miserly on it, so the large crowd was stunned into silence as Malvern won a scrum in the third minute and broke out of defence, full back Chris Hooper jinking and darting his way through a flat-footed home defence to open Malvern's account for the day. Three minutes later Burton missed a penalty, fielded the drop-out and fed their backs, only for winger Richard Fleming to intercept and run in from 40 metres to score and set up Huw Dimond's conversion.

With 11 minutes on the clock, Malvern went on a marauding move, passing along the line for Owen Jones to make a break and feed the impressive Ted Lang, at inside centre, to cut through to score, Dimond again collecting the extra two points. Malvern's travelling faithful, having seen the poor second half display the previous Saturday against Solihull, were almost as stunned as the home crowd, but this didn't last long as Malvern continued to pile on the pressure.

Malvern won a scrum on the Burton 22 metre line, Jones broke on the blind side having first sent the opposition back row the wrong way and he put Dimond in at the corner to make it 24-0 to Malvern with only 16 minutes gone. The home side started to come back into the game and tested the Malvern defence with a driving maul, but the visitors stole the ball and cleared the lines, running out of defence.

The Malvern defensive line were coping with everything Burton threw at them, and to add insult to injury, Gareth Taylor and Chris Smith either disrupted or took several Burton throws at the line out. Hooker Matt Humphries, meanwhile, ensured that Malvern won their own ball with a great display of accurate throwing. With the Burton backs being forced into errors as Malvern's defence were on to them, denying space, it took the home skipper Philliskirk to lead a move and score a converted try to give the home support a little to cheer just before the half-hour mark.

Malvern weren't to be shaken, however, and again attacked the Burton line, winning a scrum and setting up a drive that saw Gareth Taylor emerge as the score. Burton's woes were compounded when the open side flanker was sin-binned for a blatant trip, Dimond putting over the resultant penalty to make the half-time score 32-7 to Malvern.

It was obvious that Burton would try to come back strongly after the break, so Malvern effectively sealed the match a minute into the second period, winning a scrum and releasing the backs, skipper Ryan Watkins bursting through to put Fleming in for Dimond to convert.

Burton's pack finally starting putting together their well rehearsed forward drives, putting Malvern's defence to the test for long stretches, but the home backs continued to make errors upon which Malvern capitalised to clear. Ted Lang, outstanding at inside centre, took a bad knock so Julian Lambert came on at scrum half, Jamie Gwynne moving to the wing and Fleming back into the centre.

The dynamic Stewart Clarke made way for the tenacious Phil Rawle to join Jones and Hobbs as the Malvern back row continued to frustrate the home midfield as Burton carried on pressing into Malvern territory.

With 13 minutes left Burton ran out of defence to score a fine try, but Malvern continued to display a collective cool head to frustrate the flagging Burton side. On the counter, Watkins fed a beautiful delayed pass to put Fleming into a scoring position, but the unsighted referee adjudged it forward, to the frustration of the massed Malvern supporters who were in line with the play.

With eight minutes left, Burton conceded a penalty then talked their way into conceding a further 10 metres, putting Dimond within kicking range. His final score of the day, off the post, signalled a fine win for a resurgent Malvern side.

Malvern coach Andy Longley said: "It was almost going from the ridiculous to the sublime after last week's poor showing, but we worked hard at training to restore confidence and attitude within the side.

"We are getting close to the ideal formation in the backs, injury allowing, and I thought that young hooker Matt Humphries deserves special mention especially for his throwing in at the line-out."