MALVERN Rugby Club are having their worst start to a season for many years and are at present propping up the Midlands Two West table.

Malvern drew their opening league game 14-all at home to Leamington and enjoyed their only victory of the season 6-19 at Ludlow in the first round of the Intermediate Cup on September 17.

Saturday's home 11-14 defeat to lowly Stafford should have yielded points and David Robins, director of rugby, was deeply disappointed.

"We gave away two soft tries in the first half, through a mixture of laxity and inexperience. We had talked before the match about this game being a 'four pointer' and the lads are very down about the result.

"However, if you lose scrums and line-outs repeatedly on your own put-in, then there is no real platform to build on. We have a crisis in the hooker position, having lost two in short succession. Hopefully, Chris Smith will be back to give our line-out a boost but we also drastically need to tighten up our defence at the back.

"This far into the season it's difficult to recruit, so we have to work with limited resources to claw our way to respectability over the remaining 15 games.

"We were grateful today for the re-appearance of Andy Longley in the second-half - his ability to read the game and marshall the backs was one of the keys to our improved performance after the break. We still have plenty of spirit in the squad, we have to translate it into points."

Malvern resume the league campaign away to fellow strugglers Old Laurentians next Saturday (November 12), kick-off 2.30pm.