MALVERN got back to winning ways after their defeat at Newbold in Midlands Two West (South) last week when they beat Nuneaton Old Edwardians 13-10 at Spring Lane.

However, it was the proverbial game of two halves.

Malvern started the game brightly, putting Old Eds under considerable pressure from the off. This finally paid off when Laurie Essenhigh, making his first start at scrum-half, made a break and found Tom Hale to take Malvern to within five metres of the line.

The ball was moved quickly across field and Will Clee ran in the opening score, Ben King’s conversion attempt from wide hit the post.

After Nuneaton missed an easy penalty they ran the ball at Malvern but the final pass went forward.

Soon after, Essenhigh took a quick tap-penalty to take play to within 10 metres of the try line, Old Eds killed the ball and King despatched the penalty with ease.

Much of the intervening play was scrappy, the rain over the previous 24 hours making conditions slippery, but Malvern still tried to run the ball.

Some good defence from the home side in the middle of the park kept the Warwickshire side in check and, when Nuneaton were awarded a scrum on their own five-metre line, Malvern took the ball against the head and it was moved across to Tom Hale who put Malvern 13 points clear.

The second-half saw Malvern again start well, but they lost much of their early shape as the game progressed.

Old Edwardians pulled three points back from a penalty but, when Malvern responded with a fine drive to the opposing 22-metre line, the referee blew for a knock-on although the ball had clearly gone backwards.

They then made life even harder as Old Eds started to put some good forward drives together. Winning the ball in their own 22 area, Malvern elected to kick the ball upfield and chase it, when clearly a safety-first approach of finding touch would have been the better option.

Nuneaton ran the ball back and scored a try under the posts and the conversion took them to within one score of the Malvern total.

As the visitors piled on the pressure, Richard Fleming was sin-binned to give the Malvern support a nervous last five minutes.

However, some desperate defence saw them emerge victorious but needing to rethink some of the options they have been taking.

Director of rugby Dave Irish said: “Overall we were worth the win, but we need to continue our pressure game for the full 80 minutes.

“Being 13-0 up at the break was OK but not great and we need to put more points on the board and not relax until the final whistle.

“We now have a week off before visiting bottom side Old Coventrians and then the visit of unbeaten league-leaders Old Laurentians.”