NO excuses were needed from the Malvern Pirates after they were soundly beaten by a more organised and determined Birmingham and Solihull side.

MALVERN U17 PIRATES 8pts, BIRMINGHAM SOLIHULL BEES 27pts

The 27-8 win puts the Bees into the semi-finals of the North Midlands U17 Cup, but for the Pirates, the recovery from defeat must be swift to give them any chance of gaining a ticket to the U17 national competition.

Only two 25 point (or more) wins against Hereford (home on Sunday) and Walsall (away on February 19) will see them through to the next rounds.

The recovery must begin with the basics and the care of the ball is high on the list of priorities as the Pirates carelessly lost good possession in contact, or from handling errors, throughout the first-half of the match.

The Bees on the other hand displayed disciplined handling and good support and with the Pirates working hard in defence, the visitors chose their lines of attack with ease.

At the break, this tie was all but over with the Bees 24-0 in front and the Pirates facing the Spring Lane slope in the second-half.

Nevertheless, the home side looked a better team at the change and for a good proportion of the second period, the Bees were held in their own half as Malvern launched a series of counter- attacks that severely tested the visitors' mettle.

David Wood was denied a try after referee Mark Tovey was unsighted but a Phil Shore penalty, moments later, finally broke the Pirates' duck.

The Bees returned the compliment with a penalty of their own minutes later, but that was all that was on offer from the Birmingham side as they began to shut-up shop.

With the win out of contention, Malvern made the best of a bad day and ended with a flourish with man-of-the-match Jack Knowles always at the centre of the action. At last the Malvern backs had plenty of ball to play with and a long miss-pass from Shore to Craig Smith gifted the winger a score in the corner five minutes before the final whistle.

Gary Tolley, the Pirates head coach rued his team's performance on the day.

He said: "I am afraid we gave the Bees far too much respect, just as we did in our two losing performances against Worcester earlier in the season. We have got to become more mentally assertive and physical in our attacking game. We lost too much ball in silly situations and ultimately paid the price.

"That being said, the Bees are a very good outfit, but we're going to push them all the way to win the last place that's on offer for the national U17s competition."