WITH most of the Malvern U15 'Pirates' at the Banbury 10's festival, the remaining squad members with the three players from the U16s travelled to Stourbridge as the Malvern U15 'Corsairs' for a hastily arranged fixture.

STOURBRIDGE U15's 24pts

MALVERN U15 'Corsairs' 14pts

Stourbridge operate two U15 squads. One is an elite squad known as the 'Harlequins' who were at the Banbury 10's, while the other squad made up from local lads, recognised locally as the true 'town' squad.

The new Malvern half-back pairing of Julian Pounsett and John Brierly began to wreak havoc behind the Stourbridge defence and visitors were starting to look dangerous. However, a long wind assisted clearance from Stourbridge bounced favourably for the home side and the Stourbridge pack cleaned-up and rumbled over for a score.

A serious injury to Malvern centre, Russell Finch held up play for 15 minutes until the arrival of an ambulance and despite their efforts to get back into the swing of the game when it finally restarted, Malvern faltered and Stourbridge took a 14 point lead.

However, towards the end of the half, the Malvern pack established an excellent field position for their back line to attack and Brierly pulled seven points back for Malvern with a good try and conversion.

The second half was much the same as the opening stages of the match, except Malvern opted to kick for field position, eagerly contesting the homesides failed attempts to get the ball away and Pounsett and Andy Knott came close to scoring for Malvern. But despite the pressure from the 14-man Malvern side, Stourbridge recovered and they soon upped the score to 24-7 with two quick tries.

Nevertheless, Malvern battled on and finished the match in style when John Brierly claimed a second converted try for the 'Corsairs' to make the score 24-14 at the final whistle.