MALVERN gave notice of their intent to retain the champions tag with a blistering display against a strong Newport side at Spring Lane.

The Shropshiremen arrived with their usual huge front five, opening with all guns blazing to try to unsettle the Malvern defence. For ten minutes they attacked the home line, playing a close game around the fringes, but the Malvern defence held them up with some ferocious tackling from the back row and midfield players.

However, the first crucial point of the match came at a scrum, Malvern locking out the Newport shove and Dave Irish taking the strike against the head. Malvern then went on the attack up the slope, Phillips' fine positional kick finding touch 15 metres out. Thomas went through to charge down the clearance from the line-out and Simon Phillips sprinted through to touch down after 19 minutes.

From the restart, Malvern gathered and fed the ball to Beech, who flew up the right wing before passing inside to skipper Andy Longley to score and convert.

Newport picked up a soft score in the 26th minute after a free kick, but Malvern didn't allow them to start a fight back, the back row of Hart, Gaubert and man-of-the-match Alex Thomas tying up the close-quarter moves which are Newport's trade mark.

Thomas showed exactly why he has earned the 'Dark Destroyer' tag with a devastating display of ferocity, knocking back the biggest players with apparent ease. Jon Owen stole Newport line-out ball six times during the game, whilst pack leader Vince Hill kept the Malvern eight in the ascendancy throughout. Three minutes before the break, the elegant George Blakeway broke blind and fed the hungry-looking number eight Mark Gaubert, who stormed 30 metres to the line, shrugging off all attempts to halt him.

After the break, Malvern, the slope now in their favour, retained control, Beech very unlucky not to score from a Longley kick ahead. When Malvern again stole a line-out ball, Mark Humphreys took the ball on the burst to make a fine angled run to set up Longley's conversion.

On the hour Longley joined the back line and dummied superbly to put the result beyond doubt. Malvern brought on Allies for Kim Withnall, who with Steve Cooper and Dave Irish had tied up the Newport front row so well.

Newport gamely tried to take the play back to Malvern, but the champions were wise to their tactics and snuffed out all attempts of a revival, Richards making a great saving tackle. Phillips broke through to set up Thomas for the final score, leaving Director of Rugby David Robins upbeat.

Robins said: "This was a great start, our front five negating the Newport pack and the back row defending round the sides well. The whole team gelled to post a warning to the rest of the league that we intend to retain our mantle of champions. With many of our second team players in contention we have a strong squad to mount our promotion challenge."