MALVERN U16's narrowly lost to the visitors from Birmingham having dominated large parts of the game.

MALVERN U16'S 8pts, BIRMINGHAM EXILES U16'S 12pts

Having taken the lead with a penalty from Adam Dixon, Malvern should have driven forward their advantage. Unfortunately they allowed the Exiles back into the game with poor defending resulting in an unconverted try in the corner just before half time.

The second half began far more positively but Malvern were unable to capitalise on all of the possession near their opponents' line, other than a solitary unconverted try from Ben Green.

Birmingham then came back up the slope with determination and eventually scored a converted try near the posts. In the dying minutes Malvern tried to use the ball wide and were unlucky not to score from an excellent break from James Clarke.

It was a welcome return to the Malvern team for Dan Smith who was playing his first game of the season following a bad injury in September.