A REVITALISED Malvern went into this game confident of taking a second Midlands One league scalp.

MALVERN 22pts, WALSALL 21pts

The Walsall team weathered the initial storm and countered with a series of good handling movements into Malvern territory, forcing a penalty in the ninth minute which Mike Swingwood slotted over.

The heavy Walsall front five gave the Malvern pack plenty of trouble in the scrummage and with their driving mauls. It was from one of the latter that the Malvern defence became tied in and right winger Simon Motzkeit was put through for a 19th minute try.

Malvern rallied and began to retake control, the forwards making fine progress led by skipper and man of the match Vince Hill. Chris Smith had a good day in the line out, whilst Paul Hart gave another improved performance, drawing on the inspiration of back row colleagues Simon Reiter and Marc Gaubert.

It was Gaubert who brought Malvern back into the game on the half-hour. Scrum half George Blakeway made a trademark break, the forwards piled in behind him and won a five metre scrum and Gaubert picked up from the back and darted through to score.

Walsall were again stung into action, seven minutes later putting together a concise attack which created an overlap for inside centre Rich Thomas to stretch their lead. Malvern shifted up a gear and camped in the Walsall 22 metre area, forcing two penalties, the second of which saw prop James Daniell burrow through to score on the stroke of half time, stand off Paul Jenkin converting.

Walsall came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half but the defensive line, organised well by Gareth Richards, held up. Youngsters Mark Coulston and Andrew Isaac put in some excellent tackles, whilst full back Richard Wylde showed the Malvern crowd several hints of class on his home debut.

As the Malvern pack, increasing in confidence, drove forward, Richards was on hand to recycle the ball and put the right winger on course for a well-taken try to put Malvern ahead for the first time in the match in the 53rd minute. On the hour Wylde's intelligent chip ahead saw Young again scorch through to score in style.

This was the signal for Walsall to put in a gigantic effort in the last quarter of the match, Swingwood's 65th minute penalty brought them back to 22-16 and still they surged forward, repelled by some excellent Malvern tackling. Simon Reiter was, harshly, sin binned after no previous warnings.

Walsall made the most of the extra man, centre Ben Shepherd going over to take the score to just one point's difference. With a minute to go, Swingwood stepped up for a 45 metre penalty kick attempt to snatch the result for the visitors but the ball went wide.