MALVERN Rugby Club marked England's World Cup heroics with their own celebration as they crushed Bedworth 92-22.
This match against Midland Two West's bottom side Bedworth always had the look of a home banker about it and the Malvern team, hungry to increase the all-important points difference, went on to score 14 tries in the romp.
The deluge started in the fifth minute when Marc Gaubert released the ball and Mark Eastwood cut through the defence to open the scoring with Andy Longley putting over the first of his 11 conversions.
Pace
Bedworth, hit by the absence of nine regulars, looked hapless from the start and Malvern decided to run at them from anywhere on the field.
On the quarter hour Longley, playing unfamiliarly on the wing, showed plenty of pace in a 50-metre glide to pop the ball inside to Eastwood for his second try.
Chris Smith stole a Bedworth line out ball and stand off Dan Cullen made the break, sending the ball along the line for Richard Fleming to go over.
Fleming was again involved when John Martin broke through after Malvern collected the restart ball, making good yardage to put skipper Dave Irish in.
Two more Eastwood tries in the 26th and 35th minutes saw his tally increase to four, then Malvern relaxed a little to allow Bedworth in for a soft try.
Malvern replied when Gaubert exploded from the back of the scrum and nobody from Warwickshire seemed keen to stop his try, but Bedworth, to their credit, fought back and took advantage of more sloppy defending to score another try just before half time.
With the score at 47-15 at the break, the second half was going to be a formality, Malvern full of running, and Steve Taylor, fearsome to behold when going forwards, resumed the Spring lane side's scoring efforts 10 minutes in to the half.
Malvern brought on all three replacements, Vince Hill for Adie MacBurney, Chris Williams for Fleming and James Anderson coming on at eight with Gaubert moving to Steve Cooper's prop berth.
Williams immediately got involved, assisting Jon Martin's well-taken try, then Malvern took the foot off the pedal again and Bedworth came back to score again. Stung into retaliatory action, Malvern took control again and Cullen put Williams away for his first try.
He doubled his tally a few minutes later when Dave King's intelligent chip saw Williams win the race to ground the ball by several lengths.
Cullen's efforts were rewarded with a try before Williams sealed what must have been the quickest hat trick in Malvern's history after King and Eastwood had carved through the beleaguered Bedworth defence.
In the gathering gloom King finished off an awesome rugby day with a beautiful dummy run to take some of the hurt at his country's earlier defeat in the other big game of the day!
Coach Paul Essenhigh and director of rugby Dave Robins were delighted at the day's work, although not over happy at lapses of concentration which allowed Bedworth to score three times.
"It's all to easy to get blas when you are winning easily, and we must be on our guard against any complacency in future" said Robins.
Important
"However, 14 tries from nine different players, and two hat-trick artists gave an already buoyant crowd plenty of entertainment. More importantly, it increased our points difference significantly, which could be very important as the season progresses.
"The moves in position for Dan Cullen and Dave King worked well, while Julian Davis, on his debut at scrum half, was excellent, harrying and cajoling his forwards and linking well with the back row and the midfield. Chris Williams was electric on the wing, while Mark Eastwood's power was amply rewarded."
Bromsgrove, meanwhile, continued their fine league form with a 24-18 victory at Stoke to keep them second in the table, one place above Malvern.
Hereford's and Worcester Wanderers' games were called off while Pershore went down 23-20 at Old Leamingtonians in Midlands Three West (South). A league lower, Evesham also struggled as they lost 31-10 to the Midlands Four West (South) leaders Solihull.
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