Rugby: Friendly

Kings Norton 32 Malvern 40

WITHOUT any league action Kings took the opportunity to rest a few regulars and take a look at a few of their promising youngsters.

And they started well, opening up a 19-3 lead at the interval.

Scrum-half Charlie Millichip opened the scoring after 16 mins with a cheeky chip over the advancing defence, which he collected & broke through two tackles to score, Ken Whitehouse kicking the conversion.

Prop Richard Revel crashed over for an unconverted try on 24 minutes before the visitors replied with a penalty.

Fellow prop Phil Cooksey finished off another strong Norton drive just before the break with Whitehouse kicking the conversion.

Malvern hit back in the second half, closing the gap to just six points before newcomer George Theodoulou put his name on the scoresheet.

Second row Russell Gauden crashed over for an unconverted home try to restore Kings' 13-point advantage before Whitehouse completed the home scoring with a penalty.

But Malvern came back strongly and two late tries secured the win.

Kings Norton play host to Yardley & District in another friendly on Saturday.

n Elsewhere at the weekend, Woodrush lost their North Mids (South) One match at Tenbury 36-22 to leave them just one place off the foot of the table.

Redditch 2nds narrowly went down 30-27 at home to Hereford 2nds in the Merit League while the Exiles claimed their first league win of the season, a 27-5 victory over visitors Birmingham Civil Service -the tries coming from Tim Bradley (two), Paul Buck and Tracy Goodfellow.