MALVERN travelled to Shropshire for the only National Three Midlands match to be played with the incentive of both league points and a North Midlands Cup final place on offer.

On a remarkably good back-up pitch which had survived the overnight frost, play was fast and furious from the first whistle with both teams moving the ball out wide and defences covering well.

There were a lot of errors, forced and unforced, but Malvern started the brighter, spreading play across the backline but being crowded out on the narrower than usual pitch.

Newport countered and won a penalty which Chris Perry put over for the lead.

However, after losing Phil Rawle to an early knee injury, replaced by Owen Jones, the visitors slowly took the upper hand, putting the Newport scrum under a lot of pressure.

The Malvern pack played a pick-and-drive game, retaining possession and making steady progress into the home half, winning an equalising penalty from Adam Dixon.

A long range penalty attempt form each stand-off then went wide to leave the scores level at half-time.

Malvern came out strongly after the interval with Jones and Christian Edwards well to the fore as the pack ground their way to the Newport 22-metre area.

Newport infringed in front of the posts and Dixon coolly slotted the penalty to take a 45thminute lead for the Spring Lane outfit. He repeated the feat five minutes later for a 9-3 lead.

By this stage Malvern were totally dominating the game.

Tim Pickard, Matt Humphreys and Jamie Tsang in the front row were putting their opposite numbers under immense pressure, while the engine room of Matt Williams and Dave Smith added the necessary beef.

However, the tide turned when Newport brought on two front row replacements, including Phil Kaleta, with 15 minutes left.

The fresh legs in the home pack drove Malvern back for the first time in the match.

Ryan Watkins was yellowcarded as Malvern defended desperately and the resulting penalty set up a line-out.

From the catch-and-drive, prop Jack Wells burrowed over to score and Perry made no mistake with the conversion to put Newport ahead by a point.

Although Malvern spent the rest of the game on the attack, the home defence held out to take the points and the cup final berth for the second year running.