Kavallieri emerge tops in interesting encounter

Kavallieri 41
Stompers 17

Kavallieri asserted their domination in the current season by winning an exciting Barclays Cup final in front of a good crowd at the Marsa Sports Ground.

Every player on both sides deserves credit for a pulsating, hard-fought encounter which swung from end to end.

As is often the case, it was much closer than the score suggests, but the sign of a good side is that the ball seems to run for them and Kavallieri seem to have the killer instinct to make the most of their chances when it counts.

They also have a magnificent defensive will which would not break easily against many inspired Stompers attacks.

For their part, the Stompers appear to have listened to various criticisms of their knack to defend and achieved many try-stopping tackles. Both sides played well in the tight scrums and won ball against the head by well timed shoves, but the Kavallieri line-out's precision was superb with deadly accurate throwing in by Borg and clean catching by Azzopardi.

Ian Borda burrowed over from a maul for the first Kavallieri try after a precision kick into the corner by Beerman, who failed to convert.

This inspired Stompers to come back with a series of penetrating attacks, with full-back Fountain being stopped just short of the line.

Then came a costly lack of discipline from Stompers when Fountain brilliantly followed up his own kick from the back and twisted and turned to fling himself over the try-line.

Sadly it had to be disallowed because two Stompers players had remained in front of the kicker and made no attempt to retire.

Kavallieri scored again through the speedy Grima after some slick handling and loops, this time Beerman converted.

Neither side would give in and Stompers came again with several attacks, only to be repelled by the opposing defence.

Then M. Bonavia tackled Stompers full-back, Kavallieri won good ball and quick handling put Grima over again, Beerman converted to bring the score to 19.

Nevertheless, Stompers never gave up and classic passing along the line put Caruana-Curran in at the corner.

Another crisp move soon put Camilleri over for Stompers second try and the exciting first half ended at 19 points to 10.

After the interval, Stompers came out with more determination and began to undermine the Kavallieri confidence with attack after attack from side to side. Before long their efforts were rewarded by a try under the posts, converted by Calleja, bringing the score to 19-17.

During this period Stompers really had Kavallieri rocking, but several of their players are so confident of their own running ability that they often forget that they have players alongside them. Thus, scoring chances were wasted.

Finally, despite the pressure, the effort by Stompers inevitably started to fizzle out and Kavallieri hit back. Stompers' Attard made a magnificent try-saving tackle on the ever dangerous winger Vassallo, but the Kavallieri killer instinct showed itself and Scholey powered over but failed to convert.

Then Vassallo made it over into the corner despite another magnificent tackle by De Giorgio, one of the valiant but lightweight Stompers backrow. Even then Stompers did not give up and only a dropped pass prevented them from scoring near the posts.

Next came a lovely curling run by Azzopardi and a perfectly-timed shimmy and pass broke the Stompers defence for Mangion to score, Scholey converted.

At this point, the Stompers did seem to tire and the older, stronger Kavallieri at last made their physical presence felt, running in a further 12 points to finish at 41 to 17.

Every player on the pitch can feel that they contributed honourably to an excellent Barclays Cup final which augurs well for the future of Rugby in Malta, and it is especially pleasing to see the home-grown players improving all the time.

The match was well controlled by referee and national coach Graham Richards, and a special sporting memory will be both squads forming a circle with their arms around each other after the match.