Easy wins for Neptunes, Sirens

Champions Neptunes Vodafone and Sirens Hard Rock Cafe picked up their first points of the season at the expense of Exiles Pender Gardens and Gozitan team Otters ASC respectively.

Yesterday's matches brought the curtains up - unfortunately with a further significant delay on the scheduled starting time which was put forward by half an hour - on the 2007 Wilkinson Sword championship programme.

Given the disparity between the Balluta team and their opponents across the bay, and likewise that between the new Winter League champions and Otters, the element of competition was completely missing.

In the opening match, Neptunes blasted their guns and hammered their opponents ruthlessly from the very beginning with the bombardment taking place in alternate sessions for a handsome victory.

Parading their initial signing Ivan Milakovic, who incidentally only scored a last-gasp goal, the Reds had no reply from Dirk Dowling's outfit and their fast swimming and timely breaks wrought havoc in their opponents' defence.

The absence of Exiles' foreigner, who will be joining the team later on, compounded their difficulties as Neptunes ran up double figures by the end of the first quarter, after which the dice were cast.

As for Exiles, one wonders what purpose yesterday's match served them.

In the subsequent clash, the St Paul's Bay side simply strolled past Otters whose brittle quality were easy prey for the team which had Hungarian Szolt Varga in their ranks before he hands over the baton to his compatriot Tamas Marx who did duty for Sirens last season.

The power and experience of the northerners set the pattern to the match as the goals arrived at regular intervals even if Sirens played casually all along.

No doubt, the Winter League title holders will have to wait further to face testing opponents.

Generous though they were, Otters appear weak and never posed any menace. Sirens just went through the motions,with the Gozitans content to play out possession time.

Indeed another futile match in terms of both teams' learning graph.

Incidentally, Varga helped himself to seven goals, the same as Steve Camilleri's tally in the previous match.

Neptunes 23
Exiles 3
(10-0, 1-1, 9-0, 3-2)

Neptunes: N. Gouder, N. Lanzon 3, G. Sammut 1, K. Galea 3, J. Brownrigg 1, I. Milakovic 1, S. Camilleri 7, L. Attard, D. Camilleri 2, S. Gravina 1, R. Sciortino, M. Stellini 3, M. Pisani 1.

Exiles: N. Imbroll, M. Grima, M. Zarb, D. Pace Lupi, S. Vassallo, G. Desira Buttigieg, J. Paris 2, J. Cremona, K. Grixti, S. Cini, A. Arrigo, A. Borg Cole, M. Calleja 1.

Refs: A. DeRaffaele, I. Sciriha.

Sirens 25
Otters 4
(5-1, 7-1, 8-1, 5-1)

Sirens: A. Grech, E. Bonello 1, K. Rizzo Naudi 1, P. Privitera 1, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, R. Scerri 3, J. Borg 1, D. Cutajar 2, K. Montfort 3, C. Zammit 3, C. Mercieca 2, Z. Varga 7, J. Sammut.

Otters: R. Grech, S. Dimech, G. Zammit, S. Grech 3, S. Cutajar, D. Saliba, P. Saliba 1, K. Mizzi, C. Marten, K. Scicluna, E. Farrugia, S. Scerri, C. Saliba.

Refs: M. Caruana, R. Spiteri.