South and Malvern share the points

South share the points with Malvern for the second time this season.

South visited Spring Lane the home of Malvern RFC in the latest round of N3M matches. Matches traditionally between the clubs home and away have been close over the last few seasons and this was no exception.
South welcomed back Will Keeling from injury while Keiran Collins and Roddy McNaughton replaced Matt Fisher and Mark Bayley respectively. Jack Hague, Max Castrogiovanni and Len Fincham made up the bench.

In what was to turn out a thrilling and pulsating game speedster Sam Greasley scored the first try for South although Mark Lord was unable to add the extras. A yellow card for Malvern’s Mustow preceded the home side scoring two tries, one being converted to move Malvern into a 12-5 lead at half time.

South responded immediately after the break with winger Keiran Collins scoring his first try for the club since returning from Nuneaton, this time with Lord adding the conversion to level the scores at 12-12 and game on.
Once again Malvern scored two more tries, one converted to open considerable daylight between the two sides at 24-12.
South again responded well with two tries of their own through Gareth Clarke and Chris Bale, the latter converted by Lord, to again level the scores on the hour.
Malvern scored a penalty to go into the lead soon after, but Mark Lord equalised again with a penalty of his own.
As the game drew to a close Lord had a long range penalty fall just short as the points were shared for the second time this season.

Although South scored four tries to gain a bonus point it perhaps wasn’t the final result they desired. Another bonus was no yellow card awarded to South which has been somewhat unusual this season.
This morning’s edition of The Rugby Paper seem to have written off our chances of promotion as DK have now opened up a four point lead.
I’m sure that will not be lost on the players, coaches and management as they strive to overtake their nearest rivals in the remaining games before DK visit Welford Road in April.

Team: Culpin, Collins, Clarke, Keeling, Greasley, Lord, McFedries, Bale C, Johnson, March, Bale S, Badham, McNaughton, Coltman ©, Harris.

Replacements: Hague (Back from Exams), Castrogiovanni, Fincham.