Victories for Stompers, Kavallieri on opening day

Kavallieri 57
Qormi Sharks 3

The first weekend of the Cisk Lager Championship saw Kavallieri York Cisk Excel take on Budweiser Qormi Sharks in the first game of the afternoon.

Kavallieri again opted to deploy players in different roles, especially the backs, as they try to unearth perfect combinations that can help the team play more effectively.

Although a few regulars were missing from the pack, Kavallieri still had enough power up front to dominate proceedings. They were slow to get going but gathered momentum as the game went on.

Sharks, on the other hand, are a relatively new team on the local scene and looking to bring their new players to a deeper understanding of the game.

They competed well for the first 20 minutes but finally the Kavallieri onslaught took its toll as injuries forced Qormi to play with 14 men at one stage of the match.

Kavallieri's points came through three tries from captain Daniel Grima and one each for fly-half Roderick Attard, right-wing Andre Camilleri, centres Michael Bonavia, Emanuel Lautier and hooker Ishmael Borg.

Kavallieri had six converted tries from Attard as Qormi's three points came from a Julian Crawford penalty.

Kavallieri top the standings with five points, level with Stompers TGI Fridays but with a better points difference.

Man of the match: Andre Camilleri (Kavallieri)

Referee: Donald Hewer.

Stompers RFC 29
Alligators RFC 12

A second string Stompers TGI Fridays team ran out winners in a spirited game against Alligators Cisk Export.

The stubborn opposition and weather conditions perhaps frustrated Stompers who did not settle into any sort of rhythm for long periods of the game.

Alligators were calling short line-outs and moving around with a couple of big runners taking the ball up and putting the ball behind the Stompers defence. It worked for a while but Stompers did enough in each quarter of the game, to stay ahead and avoid unnecessary pressure.

Like Kavallieri, Stompers had a few players missing due to their selection in the national squad for the matches against Croatia (away) and Latvia (home) this month.

Points for Stompers came through five tries from Jovan Reljic, Luke Debattista, Patrick Satariano, Andrew Camilleri and Darren Mascena. One try was converted by Satariano.

Alligators had two tries, from Robin Parnis England and Timothy Womack, and a conversion from Jamie Acheson.

Man of the match: Max Galea (Stompers).

Referee: Bryan Corlett.