Longton always seem to produce some big, mobile forwards who can mix it with the best, and they belied their poor start to the season with an impressive performance at Spring Lane. They caused the Malvern pack plenty of trouble throughout a match where the home side were always on the back foot and under the cosh from the moment they conceded a 5th minute penalty to put the Potteries side ahead. The Malvern defence was tested for the full 80 minutes and put in tackle after tackle to deny Longton‘s efforts to cross the line in the first half. With some astute territorial kicking from stand-off Buck, Malvern were forced to try and run from deep, whilst their own kicking efforts consistently failed to find touch, allowing the visitors to keep up the momentum. A second Longton penalty galvanised Malvern, Chris Griffiths making some inroads to win a penalty for Malvern which was dispatched between the uprights by Robin Fransson. However, Longton continued to press territorially and it was only a superb saving tackle by Tom Longley which denied them a try. Malvern’s attacks were restricted to the odd breakaway from defence, one such seeing Fransson and Richard Fleming making ground before a knock-on handed the impetus back to Longton. However, Fransson stepped up in the 38th minute to put over a 41 metre kick to tie the scores at half-time, much to the relief of the home support.
The second half was much more of the same fare, the visitors driving forward, Malvern defending like dervishes, but for once it was Malvern who were being out-powered in the set pieces, which wasn’t helped when prop Jo Baker came off injured. With little or no ball to play with, Malvern couldn’t get into the game, and conceded two more penalty scores from Buck. Still in touching distance, Malvern rallied and drove upfield on several occasions, playing a pick and drive game then releasing the backs, but Longton’s defence was equally resolute. The killer blow came in the 70th minute, when Longton went blind from the back of the scrum and centre Scott Rawlings went over, only to knock on but bizarrely the referee still allowed the score. Spurred on by the injustice, Malvern put in a series of drives, taking them in to the Longton 22, but just as it looked as though they had stretched the defence enough to go in at the corner, the final pass was out of Fransson’s reach and his opposite winger Alex George sped the whole length of the field to score a converted try in the last move of the game.

Whilst Malvern might justifiably be aggrieved by the two tries conceded, they were out-muscled by a stronger side on the day. The coaching team will be busy before the two trips on the road to Scunthorpe this week and pace-setters South Leicester the following week.