South give Malvern a head start, but strike back to take a win

South were slow out of the blocks again, allowing Malvern to establish a 10 point lead by the 10th minute of the game. Both teams were without a number of first choice players and it showed!

South were without Tom Armstrong, Nick Griffin (both knee injuries), Mark Bayley (broken finger) while both Chris Bale and Gaz Jones were unavailable.
However, John Hemsley and Rich Lang were back and Gaz Nicholson made his first appearance of the season.

Malvern made all the running in the opening minutes of the game starving South of possession resulting in a penalty from fly half Dixon and a try from skipper Rawle converted by Dixon to take the aforementioned lead.
South eventually awoke from their slumber with a series of raids into the Malvern half with Max Castrogiovanni, Chris Mark and Hemsley to the fore. Mark Lord converted a penalty to open South’s account. Gaz Nicholson went very close to scoring after being put away by Nick Childs before Lord glided through the opposition defence to dive over under the posts. His conversion was a formality to level the scores at 10-10.
South then took their foot off the pedal and allowed Malvern back into the game with Dixon adding his second penalty.

Half time 10-13 in favour of the away side.

Immediately into the half Lord struck his second penalty to level the score as the game drifted into a war of attrition with both sides unable to create clear chances. The South lineout stuttered and the ball was lost in contact on a number of occasions limiting South’s intentions. A series of mysterious refereeing decisions around the South rolling maul added to the frustration, but South gradually got on top spending long periods in the Malvern 22 metre area.
South actually got over the line with four players on the ball (not an opposition player in sight) after a dynamic rolling maul, but the referee disallowed the effort!
Mr Headington did, however, yellow card Malvern flanker Strong as the pressure on the Malvern line intensified, but missed a dangerous high tackle on Gaz Nicholson and the resultant dangerous pick up by the neck by the same player. Perhaps it’s only South players who consistently get carded.
More injuries to Matt Clark and John Hemsley enabled Danny Yeow and Stu Bale to enter the fray while Liam King made his debut replacing Len Fincham at prop.
South were eventually rewarded as Lord stoked his third penalty between the posts to take the lead with five minutes left.
The referee had other idea’s, however, playing an extraordinarily long period of injury time in which South had to endure a torrid time as Malvern missed two eminently kickable penalty chances to win the game.

Not the most efficient display by South, but they did just enough to take the points.
Team: McFedries, Clark (Yeow), Childs, Lang, Nicholson, Lord, Jordan, Castrogiovanni, Mark, March ©, Hemsley (S.Bale), Antill, Fincham (King), Green, Shepherd.

Men of the Match: Mark Lord (for scoring all the points with new balls!), Chris Mark (for doing a very passable impression of Rich Paddock) and Kris McFedries (for try saving tackling way above his weight!)