Overseas Barracudas lift Ray Elliot Cup

Kavallieri Blue Label 5
Overseas Barracudas 18

Last Saturday marked the first official game of the season as Kavallieri and Overseas contested the Ray Elliot Cup.

The strong gusty winds made kicks at goal very difficult. In the first 10 minutes of the game strong defence by both sides resulted in a seasaw battle at midfield.

Kavallieri then suffered a huge loss when leader Richard Beerman had to leave the pitch injured. Nerves set in and Barracudas lost winger Chris Jones for 10 minutes, sin-binned for foul play. However, it was Barracudas who broke the ice as they scored on the wing late in the first half through Greg van Reeven (5-0).

In the second half, newcomer Carmelo Boccaccini, on for Jones, made it 10-0 for Overseas. Again, the conversion was missed as it was a difficult one from the wing. Cachia and Mascena went on for Diamantino and D. Borg and Barracudas reshuffled their backs. The game became very tense with Kavallieri's A. Bartolo sin-binned but the half-time pep-talk by Pierre Mangion had given Kavallieri new courage.

They broke well into Barracudas' 22 metres but mistakes kept them away from putting the ball over the try line until, finally, flanker Daniel Grima managed to smuggle the leather to make the score 10-5.

The game went on and it looked like Kavallieri were going to break through again but their ball-handling in the line was inconsistent.

M. Bonavia was red-carded and later the Barracudas exploited their numerical advantage in the line to break away again and score, first by means of a penalty 5-13, courtesy of man of the match Rich Newboult, and then through a second try on the wing - van Reeven making it 18-5.

The Ray Elliot Cup was presented by Mrs Elliot after the match.