MALVERN suffered a heartbreaking start to the Midlands Two West (South) season as they were beaten 15-13 at Nuneaton Old Edwardians on Saturday.
Making inroads from the off, they took the game to the much-vaunted Nuneaton pack and won a penalty but Will Gough’s 45m kick fell just short.
Tom Hale set out his stall by steaming past his opposite winger but was stopped just five metres from the try line.
Malvern’s early pressure finally paid off when the home forwards handled on the floor and Gough put over the penalty for the lead.
Nuneaton missed an opportunity to equalise by missing a penalty but Malvern responded as Hale sped up the wing, bouncing two tacklers out of the way before feeding Luke Milton for a fine try. Gough added the extras to put Malvern 10-0 up, despite having lost scrum half Laurie Essenhigh through injury.
Malvern’s injury woes continued early in the second half when the influential Ieuan Mustow tweaked a hamstring and Alex Stockwell replaced him to partner Richard Fleming in the centre.
Gough put Malvern further ahead with another penalty although the Warwickshire side’s pack were showing signs of getting their act together.
As the home pack’s weight started to tell, they won a penalty which went to the Malvern five-metre line, then put in a series of pick and drives which ended with an unconverted try.
Malvern were then down to 14 men as replacement James Redfearn collected two yellow cards in quick succession .
This gave added impetus for the home side, as from the penalty and subsequent lineout they again sorely tested Malvern’s defence, and after a series of phases scored a try out wide. The try was then converted, leaving the hosts one point behind at 13-12.
As the final whistle approached, some desperate Malvern defence was penalised as Nuneaton won the game with the last kick of the contest.
After the match, boss Dave Irish praised his battling side’s performance despite the final result.
“Having lost two props in a training game last week, we were a little worried that our pack might have been shoved around by their much heavier unit,” he said.
“However, our lads stepped up to the plate and held them for most of the match.”
Malvern entertain Pinley at Spring Lane on Saturday.