Midlands One

Whitchurch 37

Malvern 8

Scott Sturdy wants Whitchurch to seize their chance of another home game as they look to maintain the winning mentality against Moseley Oak on Saturday (3pm).

After making it back-to-back wins with a 37-8 success against Malvern, the Reds will again hope to prosper after agreeing to a request to switch this weekend's game to Edgeley Park.

Moseley Oak arrive at Edgeley Park lying 11th in the table, having won just once in their first five outings after last week's 32-10 reverse at Sutton Coldfield.

Whitchurch, however, are still missing players through injury and unavailability, with fly half Ryan Horton the latest facing a spell on the sidelines after turning his ankle against Malvern.

The Reds were again forced to show their flexibility with a number of players switching positions before and during the Malvern game.

For the first half hour, they struggled to get into stride, found themselves trailing to a penalty, before getting back on track with a couple of touchdowns before half time.

In all, they ran in seven tries for the second week running, but were again successful with just one conversion.

"We did not play well for the first half hour, we tried hard, but needed to be smarter in managing the game," said Sturdy.

"We made 12 unforced errors in that time, but defended well to keep them down to a penalty, and got two tries before half time.

"It then gave us a chance to make some small adjustments, and put things right. The players showed they are starting to work things out, and are getting better all the time."

After trailing to a penalty, Whitchurch hit back with a couple of tries before the interval – both from in-form centre Mike Gardiner whose first was a superb solo effort as he fended his way through the defence.

The Reds never looked back after that as they took charge of the second period, with prop Ian Gillespie going over for a third try, before James Hockenull – who had switched from flanker to the wing – produced a good finish to make it 20-3.

Fullback Matt Davies scored the fifth try of the game when he danced his way past three defenders to cross the line.

Their momentum was briefly halted as second row Tom Hollins was yellow carded following repeated infringements, with Malvern eventually making the most of their opportunity to go over in the corner for an unconverted score.

But the home side finished strongly with Tom Davies, who had switched to fly half following Horton's injury, the next to touch down, Luca Owen-Youens providing the conversion, before Ricky Allman completed the scoring with a seventh try.