AGAINST all the odds, Malvern Pirates pulled a good result out of the bag against a strong Ludlow side, to give the Pirates an outside chance of qualifying for the National U17 competition.

MALVERN U17 PIRATES 24pts, LUDLOW U17s 10pts

The Malvern forwards stepped up to the mark right from the off, winning early scrums and mauls with Chandler and Bowen leading by example. Appropriately, it was the forwards who drew first blood when flanker Chris Reed showed good strength and vision to put Malvern 5-0 up.

Quick hands along the Malvern back-line resulted in a try from within their own half, with Craig Griffiths outstripping the Ludlow defence for the Pirates second try, converted by Phil Shore.

After half-time, Ludlow re-grouped and assisted by a series of penalties, Ludlow manoeuvred themselves into a good scoring position in the Malvern 22. Another penalty close to the line was exploited by the Ludlow scrum-half for their first try.

Malvern responded well and with Ludlow still celebrating their try, Reed stormed forward, gathered the kick-off and crashed his way through a disorganised defence for a seven pointer, thanks to a Sam Jones conversion.

Again the flow of the match swung against Malvern but Jones and Jon Lewis are outstanding in contact and Chandler proved his strength and composure to disrupt the Ludlow drive and phased play.

However, a quick-tap penalty from the Ludlow scrum-half gave the visitors the breakthrough they needed and the Ludlow pack rumbled over for an unconverted try.

Malvern dug deep and their patience and teamwork finally paid dividends that ended with Phil Shore putting Malvern out of reach with a sprint down the right wing for final unconverted try of the day.

The Malvern man-of-the-match was flanker Chris Reed.