HAVING run leaders Broad Street close and beaten third-placed Newport convincingly in their last outing, Malvern travelled to second-placed Kenilworth with hopes of an upset.

KENILWORTH 43PTS, MALVERN 10PTS

Those hopes were soon dashed by a clinical performance by the Warwickshire side, who came out with all guns blazing. The high-scoring home team had Malvern on the back foot from the off, forcing some desperate defence.

Having repelled the initial onslaught, Malvern harried in midfield, causing hurried and missed passes, but as the game settled down, Kenilworth turned on the pressure. On the quarter hour, sustained pressure on the Malvern line sucked in the defence and the ball was spread wide for the opening try.

With their backs full of running, the home team started to throw the ball around and two more tries followed before the 30-minute point. Malvern then rallied and made their first real foray into Kenilworth territory, finally forcing a penalty which Steve Ott put over.

Undeterred, the Kenilworth juggernaut, giving Malvern all sorts of problems up front, steamed onward. A catch and drive saw the ball travel along the line then back into the pack for prop Hunter to bulldoze over, the conversion made it 26-3 at half-time.

With Malvern scrum-half White attempting to drive his forwards on, Malvern's performance got slightly better in the second period but the Kenilworth pack, so well drilled, drove them back repeatedly.

Although Taylor and Rawle tackled like demons, ably assisted by White, they were on the back foot and once the ball reached Kenilworth's backs, they exposed the Malvern back-line's habit of bunching up, utilising the overlaps. Three more tries followed but as Kenilworth started to showboat, several more opportunities were missed. Malvern gained some scant consolation in the dying minutes when Dave Wilkinson broke through to score, but Malvern left the field soundly beaten.

David Robins, director of rugby, said: "Kenilworth put in an unbeatable performance and on the day were the best side we have come up against this season. However, I am very disappointed in the manner of losing. We were half-hearted in too many areas and we also lacked any 'grunt' up front. Perhaps losing Ping Han as the cornerstone of the pack upset our balance, so we must work to compensate for this. We must regroup quickly to turn our performance around against Camp Hill this weekend.

"With four games left, we are still only a short head in front of the relegation teams. We certainly don't want to be going to Stoke at the end of the season for a last game decider."

Kick-off at Spring Lane tomorrow (Saturday) is 2.15pm.