South do just enough to take the points

South welcomed bottom club Malvern to a very windy Welford Road this weekend. Both clubs were keen to take victory and move themselves up the Midlands 1 table.
As usual South started slowly, although playing with the wind. They did, however take the lead through a Mark Lord penalty in the 5th minute and a Nick Griffin try that Lord converted in the 25th minute. Malvern opened their account with a dynamic Pimlow try as he danced through the ineffective static South defence after picking up a poor South kick ahead. Martin's conversion failed.
To compound South's misery Mike March was yellow carded for failing to roll away from a tackle and Malvern surged forward only to be held up over the South line. From the resulting 5 metre scrummage they moved the ball to the right through several pairs of hands for winger Henshaw to go into the corner. Again the conversion failed as did two more penalty attempts from Martin and Hooper.

Half time score 10-10.

South now playing against the wind needed to take the game by the scruff of the neck, keep the ball in hand and make progress against the determined Malvern defence. First blood, however, could have gone to Malvern as the penalty count against South mounted - fortunately Hooper missed a straightforward penalty chance.
This seemed to galvanise South into playing their best rugby of the game so far with Keiron Collins to the fore. A series of penetrative forward rushes instigated by John Hemsley, Sam Badham and Mike March resulted in centre Matt Thomas scoring left of the posts in the 59th minute. Mark Lord converted to take the score to 17-10 in South's favour.
What followed was a period of undisciplined defensive play from South with referee Simon Harding's whistle going into overdrive. Malvern centre Martin kicked 3 penalties to nudge them into a 19-17 lead on the hour.
To give them credit South were in no mood to lose the game and at last put Malvern under increasing pressure for the rest of the game. Rich Lang from fullback was increasing effective in taking the game to Malvern running back with purpose some wayward defensive clearances.
The break through, however, came in bizarre fashion as a Malvern defensive back, under considerable South pressure, volleyed the ball directly at Mark Lord from point blank range. He hung onto it in good goalkeeping style and delivered a dive pass for Matt Thomas to score his second try, again left of the posts. Lord converted and added a penalty in the 73rd minute to take the score to 27-19 and seal the game.
The wind ruined the game as a spectacle as did the penalty count against South.
Malvern, however, matched South in the forward exchanges and could have indeed won the game. The key factor was that Malvern failed to convert 5 of their 8 kickable chances while Lord returned a perfect 5 from 5 for South for the second successive week.

Final score: 27-19.

Man of the Match: John Hemsley.

Team: Lang, Griffin, Thomas, Collins, Nicholson, Lord, Stevens (McFredries), Bale, Sands (Perkins), March, Badham, Hemsley, Bayley, Green (Fincham), Harris.

Match report:Phil Lord