MALVERN made the long journey north to face Chester — the side they had comprehensively robbed of their Intermediate Cup crown a fortnight before — but were brought crashing down to earth with a 27-6 Midlands One defeat.

David Robins’ men encountered a team hell bent on redressing the balance, as an onslaught on the Malvern line in the opening minutes proved. Two well-worked phases brought a third-minute try for Chester.

Malvern’s scrummaging was superior in the early stages, but the line-out was a different story. Lacking the presence of a recognised front jumper, most of the duties fell to Owen Jones at the back and Chester soon recognised Malvern’s limitations in this crucial area.

Chris Hooper pulled back three points with a 15th-minute penalty and Malvern slowly edged their way into the game.

When awarded a penalty 10 metres out, Chester opted for a scrum and worked the ball well to go over in the corner in the 32nd minute.

Early in the second-half, Chester were reduced to 14 men after their lock was sin-binned and Hooper put over the resultant penalty.

Malvern then drove upfield, deep into Chester territory and good recycling kept the ball alive. However, Chester’s line held firm and Malvern were penalised for not releasing in the tackle.

Having lost Tom Drew, James Martin and Richard Fleming to injury, as well as a yellow card for Cameron Pimlow on 70 minutes, Malvern struggled to contain Chester.

Having scored a penalty, a poor re-start saw Chester win a line-out and a well-judged cross-field kick let the winger in to score.

With three minutes left, the Chester number eight came off the back of the scrum and scored the final converted try to end an ignominious day for the Spring Lane outfit.