Malvern Match Report

Rugby Lions 84 Malvern 0

 
When Dean Richards says the Rugby Lions played well, you can say that’s a job well done.

The attacking flair was there and the defence was rock solid for the entire 80 minutes just as Head Coach Neil Back and his players had wanted.

Malvern came to Webb Ellis Road as a top-half team in SSE National 3 Midlands and as the only side so far to have stopped South Leicester winning.

But they were never really given a sniff of a chance to score a try by the dominant Lions wearing their new all-white home shirts although the bench warmed up in the dazzling Lions head away shirts soon to be on sale in the club shop.

Lions’ changes meant that locally based players Ben Nuttall, Nick Walton and David Clements came into the squad with Danny Wright replacing Sam Raven in the second row.

As at Scunthorpe, Rugby had the wind in their faces and the sun in their eyes but they were on the attack from the start.

And on 7 minutes they were ahead when easy passing sent Emyr Lewis in with Leigh Hinton converting.

Hinton obliged again 6 minutes later for Danny Wright’s try from a strong forwards drive before Lions then racked up their third try from the restart after Peter Wackett sent Will Brock off on a rapid break with Ben Gollings close enough to take the scoring pass for 19-0.

Lions might have carried on scoring at this rate given the 5-metre scrums they opted for instead of kicking penalties but Malvern held out.

Then Nigel Mukarati was just inches short before the scoring job was completed by front row Gareth Hardy to secure the 4-try bonus point.

Alex Bibic then made ground and centres Vilk and Lewis contributed before Wackett scored, his try followed by another one for Ade Hales to see Lions 36-0 ahead at the interval.

He wind strengthened for the second half, which was largely one-way traffic despite the efforts of a young Malvern side.

Hinton scored followed by Brock who then had to take time out for attention to a bloodied nose with Beau Carney coming on.

The tries kept coming with hooker Stewart Pearl twice involved in the build up to Mukarati’s try for 53-0 after 54 minutes.

When Malvern prop Jamie Tsang was sinbinned, Lions took immediate advantage with tries for Vilk and Hales.

Lewis and Gollings both scored their second tries before Brock was yellow-carded for what appeared a thumping but fair tackle.

Rugby achieved their first point-a-minute average when Wackett seemed to have time to look around before strolling over, Gollings rounded off the scoring to the delight of a very enthusiastic and complimentary crowd.

Rugby Lions: Wackett, Hinton, Lewis, Vilk, Hales, Gollings, Needham, Hardy, Pearl, Nuttall, Bibic, Wright, Tait, Brock, Mukarati. Reps: Walton, Carney, Clements

Match report by kind permission of Rugby Lions