THIS game was "the Big One" which the rest of the league was waiting to assess - the two unbeaten sides in Midlands Two (West) have been consistently outperforming all others, so the likelihood of a close game was always on the cards.

The muddy pitch made it unlikely that the two sets of free-scoring backs would cut loose, and so it proved, the two packs being called to dog it out for 80 minutes.

The match was played at cup-tie pace throughout, the Malvern back row constantly amongst the action as the home side put in wave after wave of attacks to keep Hinckley pinned into their own half. The reward was two Longley penalties in the first ten minutes as the visitors were forced into transgressions.

Malvern had the lion's share of the play, utilising the slope to their advantage, Hinckley coming back midway through the half, but Malvern's defence holding firm. A bonus for the vocal crowd was the fact that both sides had come to play rugby, even though the highly-charged atmosphere and the importance of the match could have led to some heated moments. Malvern's pack continued to pile on the pressure, playing a controlled rucking game, Man of the Match Kim Withnall to the fore and the back row snuffing out the danger presented by their opposite numbers. Even the blatant bias shown throughout the game but visiting touch judge could not upset the home team, Longley giving a nine point half time cushion with his third penalty.

Playing uphill in the second half, Malvern were forced to defend for long periods as the young Hinckley side pressed relentlessly, forcing a penalty in the 50th minute, which in turn led to a controlled driving maul from which hooker David Massarella scored.

The end-to-end play continued, Hinckley with tails up and Malvern soaking up the pressure and counter attacking. Humphreys was caught five metres short of the line, but Malvern won a penalty to stay on the offensive. Longley joined in the action, chipping over the Hinckley defence for stand-off Paul Jenkin to win the race to ground the ball, Longley converting to put Malvern 11 points clear. Hinckley were called on to respond and did so in inspired fashion, wining a penalty which Curtis put over, but they were still two scores behind.

Ten minutes from time a kick in to the corner saw winger Dutton win the race to touch down, Curtis converted and the gap was only one point. Malvern defended magnificently to the final whistle, which brought relief and jubilation to the home players and supporters alike.

A hoarse David Robins, Director of Rugby, was delighted: "A massive performance against probably the best side we have played in the league in my five years involvement at Malvern, our forwards were magnificent, the back row tackling superbly when we were defending our line and the front five putting in a dogged effort up front."

Tomorrow (Saturday) Malvern continue along the road to Twickenham at Lutterworth in the Intermediate Cup.