MALVERN’S longest away trip came to nothing despite a courageous fight back against a far bigger and heavier Peterborough side as they went down 23-15 in National Three Midlands.

With a strong wind at their backs, the Fenmen went into a first-minute lead from a penalty as Malvern killed the ball.

From a throw-in that looked suspiciously crooked, the hosts passed the ball across the line to score a try in the corner, which was added to by a penalty a few minutes later.

However, Malvern were more than holding their own up front and showed some technical superiority in the set-pieces.

Using the strong wind to maximum effect, Peterborough kept the ball in the Malvern half and, from broken play, went through to score a converted try four minutes before the break.

Malvern’s pack responded brilliantly, putting in a driving maul which shoved the massive Peterborough unit back a full 30 metres and sucked in their defence. The ball was shipped out to Richard Fleming, who put in a fine chip behind the home backs for Ed Binham to race through and touch down, setting up Dave Hadkiss for the conversion on the stroke of half-time.

Skipper Phil Rawle left the field having taken a knock, Sean Robinson went into the pack and Liam Roleston took his place on the wing.

Peterborough again went deep into Malvern territory but Ollie Meadows put in a couple of telling tackles.

Peterborough were penalised for not releasing the ball and Malvern went into the home 22 metre area, stretched play back and forth across the field and Gareth Taylor went over in the corner to score.

As Malvern pressed again, they won a penalty which Hadkiss put over to bring them within three points of the Cambridgeshire side.

Another punishing Malvern driving maul set up a chip-and-chase, forcing a line-out 20 metres out. The resulting drive took Malvern to the home line, but the killer punch was lacking.

As the game went into the closing stages, Borough brought on some fresh legs while Malvern didn’t and this was to prove costly as they closed the visitors down in the final 10 minutes, rubbing salt in the wounds to deny an away losing bonus point with a last-minute try.