MALVERN cemented their spot at the summit of the Midlands Two West (South) table with a comfortable 52-12 home victory over Nuneaton Old Edwardians at the weekend.
For the second week running the Spring Lane outfit scored inside the opening minutes on Saturday as the mercurial Tom Hale bagged another try.
However, Rob Cook’s side were then dealt an early blow as tight head prop Craig Freeman had to be replaced by veteran Mark Chivers after picking up a leg injury.
But the hosts’ intensity never dropped following the substitution as Glen Potter burst through the middle of Nuneaton’s defence to score and set up an easy conversion for Niall Potter-Farrant.
Conor Giggle then bagged Malvern’s third try of the game after skipping past three defenders before the visitors hit back prior to the break with a converted try.
The hosts extended their advantage immediately from the restart.
The in-form Hale crossed the line following a 50 metre run-in to secure the try bonus with Potter-Farrant kicking the extras.
Luke Milton, who was running things in the middle of the park, then set up Hale to claim his hat-trick try with the boot of Potter-Farrant kicking another conversion.
Ringing the changes, Malvern brought on Frankie Purcell at scrum half as they continued to attack and Giggle again went over to score.
This time Adam Dixon added the extras to complement his controlling performance at fly half.
Despite the scoreline, Nuneaton refused to give up and following a period of sustained pressure they went over for a deserved try.
However, it was Malvern who had the final say as youngster Rory Atkins powered through with Dixon again converting.
That brought the game to a thrilling end as Malvern notched up a second successive half century.
Malvern have a week off before resuming their league campaign with a trip to basement side Old Yardleians.
With winter now approaching, the kick-off has changed from 3pm to 2.15pm.