FINALLY the Malvern Dogs opened their winning account with a hard fought, but emphatic, victory over Telford.

TELFORD II 6pts, MALVERN II 32pts

They chose to do it by the hard route though as a lost car meant they started the game players short. After 10 minutes they were down by two penalties but at least had a side to take the fight to a very spirited home side.

After some prolonged pressure, just before half-time, the ball was moved wide to Alex Mitchard to scurry over in the corner. Moaby's conversion was wide but the half time whistle went with Malvern in the ascendancy.

The second half saw the introduction of Ben Hughes and Alex Thomas, and the tempo changed straight away. Firstly a ball moved wide again after some quick rucking play which saw outside centre Dave Beech round the defence for the try, then seconds later Hughes crossed over as the tide well and truly turned.

Great defence by Radley and Ridley snuffed out any chance Telford had of getting back into the match before Beech weaved his way over for a second followed by his hat-trick feeding off a jinking run from Ben Hughes.

Man of the match Mark Moaby added a penalty and two conversions, and hit the upright no less than three times!