MALVERN went to Wyeside confident of avenging the recent league defeat by Hereford but unfortunately, the home side didn't follow the script for this Intermediate Cup second round tie.

HEREFORD 20pts, MALVERN 18pts

Malvern set out purposefully, taking play to the hosts, with Dave Merlin making some good punching runs on his debut.

All the signs were that Malvern could control the game, with some excellent defending when Hereford countered.

After a few niggling incidents, with Hereford's Lewis sin-binned, Malvern made ground to the home five metre line, from the line-out the pack drove on and hooker Andy Logan burrowed over.

A further two clear chances were wasted before Longley put over a penalty to give Malvern an eight point cushion at half-time.

Hereford's discipline had disintegrated, Bullock yellow-carded for a cynical off the ball elbowing of Longley, and the signs were looking good for a place in the next round for Malvern.

It was not to be, with Hereford taking a scrum against the head and Lively scoring in the corner. The game became scrappy and error strewn, and with Malvern showing none of the first half fluidity, Heavens ran through a static defence to put Hereford in the lead, converting his own try.

Longley pulled back three points with a penalty, then Malvern rallied, taking the game back to Hereford, a penalty try being awarded after Beech and Kristoffersen's pressure, Longley converting for a six point lead. Hereford rallied again, driving downfield for Bullock to score as tackles were missed.

Two minutes from time, Heavens snatched the game from Malvern's grasp with a penalty to seal another narrow victory.

Director of Rugby David Robins was disappointed at the manner of the defeat.

Robins said: "Having shown that we could control the game, we lost our shape totally in the second period. There seemed to be a headless chicken syndrome at times, and poor tackling threw the game for us. We have plenty of work to do before we play at Walsall next week."