Three new faces in Malta squad for qualifiers

Malta coach Damien Neill has named three new players in his squad for this month's FIRA-AER Division 2B qualifiers against Latvia and the Netherlands.

Tom Pace Moore and Peter Bradley, of newly-crowned champions Stompers, and Vince Stivala, of Overseas, have all been given the green light by Neill to join his squad after leaving a good impression during a training camp at the Marsa Ground in March.

Australia-based Paul Marzella and Rohan Spiteri both make a return to the national team set-up after missing the previous qualifiers against Croatia (16-18) and Sweden (9-6) but Dominic St George is out.

Malta are currently sharing second spot in Division 2B with Croatia and Sweden on four points, two behind leaders Netherlands who won their opening two matches.

Today, the national team will travel to England where they will be holding a one-week training camp ahead of the first qualifier in Riga, scheduled for next Saturday.

Neill is taking it step-by-step but knows what to expect from Latvia, still without a win after upsets to Sweden (21-5) and the Netherlands (29-10).

"At the moment, I am only focusing on our first qualifier," Neill told The Times.

"We know from previous meetings that they will be physical and make good use of their forwards play. Their top performers, including the professional ones, currently play in the Russian league.

"Latvia have a strong lineout and scrum and adopt a pick-and-go style of game. We need to defend strongly in these areas and try to finish off any opportunities that will come our way.

"We travel to Latvia late on Friday evening, which is not ideal for preparations, but we are very much looking forward to this game."

Current standings

Netherlands 6; Sweden, Malta, Croatia 4; Latvia 2.

Next Fixtures

April 18: Netherlands vs Sweden; Latvia vs Malta.

April 25: Malta vs Netherlands; Croatia vs Latvia.

Neill's Squad

I. Borda, H. Collins, K. Mason, T. Pace Moore, P. Bradley, C. Diamantino, D. Psaila, L. Watts, R. Bonavia, S. Kempster, P.A. Calgaro, G. Kennedy, M. Bonavia, M. Mirabelli, J. Finlason, M. Jarrett, R. Spiteri, D. Busuttil, P. Marzella, M. Attard, L. Culnane, O. Sacco, V. Stivala.