MIDLANDS West Two leaders Kenilworth came to Spring Lane half-expecting an easy ride but were made to fight hard for their win bonuses as the home side produced an impressive performance.

MALVERN 15PTS, KENILWORTH 24PTS

Although the Warwickshire side looked to be a class act with their mobility and handling, the Malvern back row harried and spoiled to put them off their stride.

The front five, marshalled by skipper Matt Richardson, clearly won the battle in the tight, taking a couple against the head later on in the game.

Malvern had piled on the early pressure, with debutant flanker Gareth Taylor showing the class born of several seasons in the National Leagues, whilst Phil Snare again impressed with his ball-carrying.

If there was a weakness in Malvern's play, it was in kicking away good possession, allowing Kenilworth to counter-attack, although their opening 13th minute score came from a poor pass, which saw the ball worked upfield for prop Collett to score.

Peacock, the busy visiting scrum-half, converted but Malvern came back in spirited fashion with Snare and Taylor again well to the fore.

Alex Thomas was outstanding in defence and Julien Davis had a busy and productive afternoon at scrum-half. Winger Chris Williams was unlucky when chasing a well-judged kick by Davis, the ball just beating him out of play, whilst on the other wing Ben Lamb was full of strong running.

The centre pairing of John Martin and Aswat Riaz showed some promise and Ott, again at stand-off, showed his competence as an all-rounder.

At full back, teenage Kiwi Henry MacLernan, usually a number nine, looked as though he had always played there. The Malvern pack put in some excellent driving, rolling mauls to peg Kenilworth back and were finally rewarded with a penalty which Ott, not having the best of days with his boot, slotted over for a 3-7 scoreline at the break.

Kenilworth came out in determined mood and pressured the home defence into conceding two penalties, from which Peacock was able to burrow through to score and convert.

Coming back in positive fashion, Malvern took a line-out, where Smith and Ruddock had been outstanding, and rumbled upfield. The ball was whipped out to Ott, who ran through the middle to score and convert.

From the restart, Kenilworth again forced a penalty for Peacock to stretch the lead to seven points.

Having had a period of dominance, the visitors winning score came from their own 22-metre area as they countered after fielding a speculative territorial kick. They won a five-metre scrum and Peacock again went in from close to score and convert in the 65th minute.

Malvern brought on the fresh legs of Andy Burns, Christian Edwards and George Roberts, and continued to look the more threatening of the two sides. Taylor crowned a magnificent debut with yet another charge, the ball was moved out and John Martin used his power to score in the corner.

The game ended with Malvern putting in wave after wave of attacks and it was a relieved Kenilworth side that greeted the final whistle.