Kavallieri show their dominace over Stompers

Stompers - 11
Kavallieri - 28

Mike Turner

Doublesin had another excellent game and at last Kavallieri have found a kicker in Cutajar, which makes a huge difference to the morale of a side. Even with a vicious wind he kicked 3 out of 6 attempts.

 Coach Mr. Emmerson has really organized the Kavallieri defence so well that many promising Stompers attacks were stifled by superb covering tackles, and the team reads the game patterns very well so they know where to run to fill the gaps.

 Stompers started with the strong wind at their backs but it was Kavallieri who took the game to them in their territory from where Cutajar converted a penalty. Doublesin broke next to put Azzopardi in for a try in the corner.

Stompers were not using the wind well but finally managed to work into an attacking position from where Attard scored one out of two penalty attempts. Some lovely Stompers attacks along the backline were held by staunch Kavallieri defence.

A chip from Bouillon bounced badly which robbed Mirabelli of a certain try, and the ensuing ruck pressure was relieved when Stompers gave away a penalty. The kick was poor but Debattista let it bounce and it dribbled into touch to gain 35 metres. From there Kavallieri mounted a rather scrappy attack which was taken up by the powerful, fast Kombo who broke a high tackle by Attard and a weak one by Bouillon to score in the corner. Attard hit back with a Stompers penalty to make the half time score 6-13.

 Against the wind in the second half, Stompers started with a real come back pressure which ended with Bradley driving over in the corner to bring the score back to 11-13 and it looked as if game was on. Stompers launched attack after attack but they always seemed to chose the wrong option, passing when they should have held on and holding on when they should have passed.  Kavallieri were using the wind better than Stompers and Doublesin transformed the game when he made a lovely blindside break to swerve past two defenders and score a try which Cutajar converted.

Stompers were provoked into a series of attacks but time and again picked the wrong options and the defence held the easily until their confidence and will seemed to droop.

Fountain made an unusual error on fielding a long wind backed kick to give away 70 metres. An ensuing penalty allowed Cutajar to add a further three Kavallieri points.

A brilliant, full speed backs move by Stompers which would have resulted in a try was spoiled by bad timing and a forward pass.

Then Kavallieri used the wind again to gain much ground and launched their old trademark tactic, the rolling maul off a lineout. This absolutely mashed the demoralised defence and Borda scored the final try to give a resounding win and start for the Mediterranean Bank Cup.

 Mirabelli got a red card for two technical offences and Kavallieri 2 yellows, Stompers I yellow, but it was not a rough game, and was an excellent, entertaining start to the Mediterranean Bank Cup.

Rugby Results:

Med Bank Cup

Stompers  11 -  Kavallieri  28

Alligators 5  - Valletta - 33

Overseas 15 -  Falcons  0

 MIA Ladies 10s Cup

Falcons 19 -  Kavallieri 22

Alligators  0 -  Valletta 15