A MISFIRING lineout and a leaky defence saw Malvern slump to a 60-21 defeat at Dudley Kingswinford in Midlands One West.

Bottom club Malvern travelled to Wall Heath buoyed by the previous week’s success against Droitwich.

But the third-placed Black Country outfit proved to be a tougher nut to crack and ran in 10 tries in a bumper home win.

They also opened the scoring as a swift back-line move resulted in speedy wing Charlie Baffour scoring the first of his three tries.

But Malvern hit back almost immediately as they won a penalty to set up a five-metre lineout and the pack combined with good discipline to push Liam Roleston over the try-line. Jasper Windsor-Clive added the extras to even up the scoreline.

Malvern were using the cross-field wind to good effect as Rob Cook made excellent yardage with the boot and the forwards responded at the scrum.

But Malvern's lineout throwing was well below par and after DK had retaken the lead sloppy play handed them a chance to open up a 17-point lead.

The visitors kept competing and reduced the deficit when wing George Roberts forced a turnover and the resultant cross-field kick saw Lewis Hardiman speed through for a converted try.

But the second half opened with DK’s backs testing Malvern’s defensive frailties and their pacey centres breaking the line to score before adding another moments later.

With John Clark on to replace Grant Fraser at tighthead prop the Malvern scrum continued to dominate the set-pieces only for all the good work to come undone as they lost the lineout.

DK immediately capitalised as the ball sped across the line to their winger who went over in the corner. The punishment continued as they carved through the middle once again.

A long period of Malvern forward dominance ended up with the referee awarding them a penalty try and sin-binning a DK player in the process.

However, from the restart the hosts went straight upfield and were awarded a penalty try of their own as the referee adjudged that the last tackle was unfair.

In response Cook put Malvern into a good position in the five-metre zone. Three penalties were won as they dominated the resultant scrums.

However the referee seemed reluctant to repeat his earlier penalty-try decision and this time DK managed to clear their lines.

As DK got into the Malvern 22 area, a couple of fumbles saw them concede territory and although they won a lineout, the throwing curse struck again and the home side finished off with a final converted try.

Malvern who are 19 points adrift of safety have a weekend off before stepping up their preparations ahead up their meeting with Hereford at Spring Lane on Saturday, March 2.