Marzella returns to lift Malta to victory at hibs ground

Malta 26
Croatia 15

A sublime kicking performance from Paul Marzella lifted Malta to the top of the 2007 World Cup third qualifying round Pool B after Malta outsmarted Croatia 26-15 at a packed Hibs Ground yesterday.

The 22-year-old winger, who plays for Burleigh Bears in the Australian league, was Malta's winning card. He scored four penalty kicks and two conversions for an excellent tally of 16 points that propelled the Maltese to first place in the group with seven points, one more than joint runners-up Germany and Belgium who, however, have a game in hand.

Next Saturday, the team plays Belgium and victory in Brussels will guarantee Malta a top-two finish and promotion to Division IA in the European Championship next season.

Against Croatia was by far Malta's best performance at home. Damien Neill's men took control of the match early on and combined well to peg their more-quoted opponents into their own half for most of the time.

It was only in the last 10 minutes of the first half that the Croatians threatened to turn the tide in their favour with two quick tries. But the Maltese regrouped after the interval and with a Domenic Busuttil try and the excellent kicking of Marzella there was no doubt where victory was heading to.

Malta was off to a flier and took just three minutes to score the first try of the game when they earned a scrum from four metres out. The pack pushed relentlessly forward and Robert Bonavia made the decisive lunge over the line. Marzella easily converted to put Malta 7-0 up.

Croatia were then forced to play the next ten minutes with a player less after Ante Olujic was sin-binned. It was all coming out nicely for Malta and Marzella's shooting power was making all the difference as he was successful with two quick penalty kicks that increased the advantage to 13-0.

Numerical parity was restored but Malta still held the edge. Eddie Zarb was influential in his first appearance for Malta in the pack while the effective running of Jamie Caruana and Rohan Spiteri were causing problems to the Croats.

Croatia ended the first half very strongly though. They scored two tries from Miroslav Mandic and Vlado Ursic in the final three minutes with only one conversion from Ivan Rejetar to leave the game wide open at half-time, Malta leading by just one point - 13-12.

Marzella had missed Malta's last two matches but was looking to leave his mark yesterday and scored again from a penalty kick to give his team a four-point lead. However, the deficit was soon cut down to one point again when Rejetar also kicked in a penalty - 16-15.

Fifteen minutes into the second half, Malta were again awarded a penalty. Ursic was sin-binned for foul play. Marzella scored again to leave the Maltese breathing more easily at 19-15.

The Croats' resistance crumbled at this point and the enclosure at the Hibs Ground erupted with joy when Busuttil stormed over the goalline for the second Maltese try of the match. Marzella was again perfect from the conversion to hand Malta a commanding 26-15 lead.

Malta lost Spiteri for a deliberate knock-on to leave the side playing the final minutes with a player less. The Croats tried to make that extra man count but the Maltese held on for another memorable win.

Aftermatch comments...

"All the players deserve the plaudits today as it was a great team performance," coach Damien Neill said.

"We dictated the match for long stretches and Croatia were only in it in the last 10 minutes of the first half when we gave them too much space to manoeuvre.

"But we soon regained the upperhand and managed to make sure of the points with some excellent attacking play and the great kicking of Paul Marzella. No doubt, he played a major role in this victory."

Paul Marzella, 22, said: "This was a great way to return to the team after missing the Germany and Serbia qualifiers. Our forwards played very well today and won many crucial kicks that helped us build a strong lead.

"However, we still think that the real protagonist today was the crowd. They never stopped cheering us. Again, they made the match a memorable experience for all of us. Now, we hope that today's result will set us up for another good performance in Belgium."

Malta: D. Zammit, H. Collins, E. Zarb, L. Watts, R. Bonavia 5, G. Kennedy, S. Kempster (captain), D. St George, J. Dimond, R. Spiteri, O. Sacco, J. Caruana, D. Busuttil 5, P. Marzella 16, L. Culane.

Sub used: K. Mason.

Croatia: G. Zilic, G. Culic, I. Nola, M. Antunovic, L. Marin, A. Olujic, B. Sablic, J. Loureta, J. Dedic, A. Posa, T. Burazin, V. Ursin 5, D. Grizey, M. Mandic 5, I. Rejetar 5.

Subs used: M. Rajcic, K. Ujanovic, T. Cerin, A. Syepcevic, H. Holjevac.

Referee: Shaun Mallon (Holland).

Pool B results:

Croatia vs Serbia 26-9; Belgium vs Croatia 26-20; Malta vs Germany 0-43; Serbia vs Malta 3-16; Germany vs Serbia 108-0; Serbia vs Belgium 15-36; Malta vs Croatia 26-15.

Next fixtures:

Saturday - Belgium vs Malta (Brussels); Croatia vs Germany (Zagreb).

April 29 - Germany vs Belgium (Hanover).