Rugby: Latvia’s fightback stuns Malta

The Malta rugby national team succumbed to its second successive defeat in the FIRA/AER Division 2A qualifier when it lost to Latvia 33-26 at the Hibs Stadium this afternoon.

The Maltese seemed to be cruising towards a comfortable victory after the first half. On 15 minutes Matthew Camilleri scored Malta’s first try after some fine work from Robert Holloway and James O’Brien. The latter scored the conversions to put Malta 7-0 ahead.

Two minutes later Holloway set up O’Brien who scored another try and the Waterloo player then didn’t miss the conversion to stretch the hosts lead to 14-0.

Latvia were clearly struggling and Malta continued to pile up the points when Holloway stole possession to set up Malcolm Attard who scored underneath the posts for 19-0 lead.

The visitors managed to bridge the gap to 19-6 with two central penalties from Kristaps Berzins.

On the resumption the Latvians came out stronger and managed to level the match with two tries from Reinis Pepa and Maris Ceksters, both converted by Berzins.

Malta’s response was immediate when O’Brien was at the end of another devastating run to put Neill’s men 26-19 ahead.

Unfortunately, injuries to key players were taking its toll on the Maltese and the Latvians fully profited scoring two late tries from Romans Odnokurcevs and Aris Andersons to seal a dramatic victory.