MALVERN opened their National Three Midlands campaign with a 21-16 home victory over Burton.
Although the visitors kicked an early penalty, the Spring Lane side scored the first try through Tommi Hughes on 10 minutes with Tommy Hayes converting.
Burton closed the gap with another penalty and went ahead through a try, despite an apparent knock-on.
With the Staffordshire side escaping any punishment for infringements, Malvern’s John Clark was sent to the sin-bin.
But the hosts’ pack continued to be stronger and they shook off the loss of Adam Billig to injury.
They drove Burton off their own scrum four minutes into the second period and winger Jimmy Aston scored with Adam Dixon converting.
Burton retook the lead with a second try but finally lost a man to a yellow card and the resulting penalty try was kicked by Dixon three minutes from time.
Meanwhile, Bromsgrove romped to a 57-19 win at Peterborough with tries from Nigel Burrows, Ade Hales (4), Warren Oliver (2), Toby Wilson and Ben Copson, who also kicked six conversions.
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