MALVERN suffered a 27-14 defeat at local rivals Luctonians in National Three Midlands.

The big and mobile Luctonians pack proved a handful from the off and, after a free-kick, they moved the ball around well to open the scoring with a seventh-minute converted try.

Malvern foraged well, with skipper Phil Rawle leading by example, and, from a tap-penalty, young centre Tom Hale made good ground deep into the home 22-metre area.

Gareth Taylor secured good line-out ball, which was moved quickly out and Hale cut through for an excellent first try for Malvern. Adam Dixon converted to level the scores.

Three minutes later, Malvern turned over the ball and it was flipped out to winger Tom Beechey, who scorched through a poor Luctonians defence on a 40-metre scoring run. Dixon again bagged the extra two points.

A Luctonians scrum and drive resulted in the equalising score three minutes after the break.

Ten minutes later, Lucs made their way to the Malvern line and were held up. From the resulting scrum, the home pack put in a drive and claimed a score.

Lucs secured the win in the 68th minute after a controlled series of plays sucked in the Malvern defence, allowing the full-back to join the line and score.

A penalty on the stroke of full-time ended proceedings.