Kavallieri too good for Stompers

Mike Turner

From the start the much improved Stompers pack set about taking the fight straight to the experienced Kavallieri eight and for long periods were camped in the Kavallieri half. However coach Emmerson has really plugged into the famous Kavallieri spirit and the single Stompers try was the very first scored against Kavallieri in the Cisk League this season, because their defence is so well marshaled and the tackling so determined.

The first ten minutes or so was nearly all Stompers, but whatever they tried their waves broke on the rock defence.

Kavallieri broke out, and after Stompers lost a player to the sin bin, Galea failed to tackle Mallia who set up a ruck near the line, the ball went out to the Kenyan international, Cumbo, who took the lead for Kavallieri with a fine try.

With the one man advantage Kavallieri pressed and despite wasting a three man overlap out wide, the pack drove for the line and Borda was awarded a try.

Before half time the Kavallieri captain, Vassallo was yellow carded too but Stompers failed to take advantage, so the half finished with a 10 – 0 lead for Kavallieri.

The second half started with Stompers launching wave after wave of attacks, mostly directed by the returning Mirabelli at scrum half, who displayed his international quality throughout the match. He pounced on Schembri, his opposite number after a scrum, the pack rucked well, ball flew to Attard at fly half, slipped back inside to Mirabelli, who scored despite two tacklers.

The problem for Stompers is that they do not have a well organized back division due to injuries and unavailability and this showed because they were unable to launch slick, fast attacks. With Attard and Zahra out of position at fly half and full back many of the moves were ponderous and badly handled, with international Camilleri have a poor game.

By contrast Kavallieri did not try anything spectacular, but when they attacked did so with killing efficiency to snap up the scores.

Poor Zahra was out of position many times at full back so poor Kavallieri clearances which failed to find touch ended with huge gains. Vassallo played an excellent leaders match but was very lucky to stay on the field as his tackling was questionable at times and a second yellow would have meant a red.

He was always closely supported by Grima and Psaila at his shoulder, but some of the old soldiers in the Kavallieri pack were lucky that they were allowed to spend a lot of time defending from well in front of the back foot, which helped them stifle the Stompers attacks illegally.

The standard of play is continuing to rise and this was an exciting match.

The Malta International Airport Ladies Ten’s got off to a fine start with a fine win for Falcons over Kavallieri, who are rebuilding after losing several of their experienced players. Falcons powerful forward drives were too much for the new girls, whose positional sense has not yet been developed.

Rugby weekend results:

Cisk Men’s League:
Kavallieri 22 - Stompers 7

 MIA Ladies 10s Cup
Kavallieri 7 - Falcons 27

Men’s 10s Cup
Falcons 17 - Overseas 20
Kavallieri 15 - Stompers 25.