MALVERN, bouyed by last week's big win and the return of five players, faced a side which provided the toughest test of the season in the away fixture.

MALVERN 3rd XV 27pts, STOURBRIDGE 3rd XV 38pts

The visitors won the toss and elected to take advantage of the wind and slope. Early exchanges were in the middle of the pitch, but slowly the Malvern pack began to impose some authority.

This allowed them to drive the ball up the park and Owain Wynne crashed through from close-in to score the game's opening try.

Shortly after, with Malvern again dominating through the forward line, a head injury to a Stourbridge prop meant scrums were now uncontested.

This changed the game completely, with the Stourbridge backline being able to run at pace through the Malvern side. Within five minutes, they had scored twice.

A swift reply from Dai Wynne, just reward for a phenomenal first-half at fly-half, was answered with another breaking run and try by Stourbridge. A Rob Francis penalty left Malvern trailing 15-19 at the break.

Malvern had the slope in the second-half and looked to play attacking rugby, which provided an entertaining opening ten minutes.

All this good work was undone by a counter-attack that gave Stourbridge a decisive lead. Despite the efforts of Owain Wynne, with two more tries, and some great open-field running and tackling by Sirus Grant, two more Stourbridge tries left the final score at 38-27.

Malvern had played arguably their best rugby of the season and take huge confidence into the next game.

Man-of-the-match was Owain Wynne.