Malvern aim for away joy

Nick Tisdale’s side head to Devon yet to taste success in four attempts on the road this term and also looking to put a run of four straight defeats behind them in National League Three South West.

Malvern must look to replicate their performance at London Irish Wild Geese back in September when they ran the unbeaten league leaders close in a 21-19 loss.

The fourth-from-bottom outfit are still without several key players but Nick Miller returns at inside-centre following three weeks out with a dead leg.

With Adam Dixon missing due to a shoulder injury, Tom Longley comes in at flyhalf and James Southall switches to scrum-half.

Chairman Peter Woods said: “Barnstaple are going to be very difficult on their own pitch.

“All the Devon sides are good at home but they don’t travel quite so well.

“Barnstaple have had a good home record over the past few seasons and we are expecting a pretty tough game. We would like to get our first win on the road, having come close on a couple of occasions.

“We came close at Oxford Harlequins, when they beat us in the last minute, as well as at London Irish in the second game of the season and they are top.”

Malvern were beaten 17-3 at home by third-from-bottom Avonmouth Old Boys in their last game on November 3 and went down 19-8 at Amersham and Chiltern, who are one place above them, the week before.

Despite struggling for points, Woods is confident they can reverse that trend at Pottington Road against mid-table Barnstaple.

“Defences have been very good in this league, possibly a bit stronger than in the Midlands, and also we have been outmuscled a couple of times in the pack,” Woods added.

“We are looking to score a few tries this weekend because our back-line is going to be pretty good.”

Last Saturday’s North Midlands Cup quarter-final at Whitchurch was postponed due to both sides having a number of players injured. It will now be on Saturday, December 1.