Damien Neill hailed his players’ spirit as Malta made it three wins in a row in Division 2A with a 22-14 victory over Sweden yesterday.

“I’m pleased for my players today,” the rugby coach told The Sunday Times at Corradino.

“We managed to put Sweden off their game with some swift play and very solid defending. The dismissal of Joss Howlands could have easily hampered our rhythm but the players worked even harder and we fully deserved the win.

“This result shows how far this team has come and next week we’ll probably rise into the top 40 in the rankings which is a great feat for a small country like Malta.

“Had we not dropped points against Latvia and Lithuania early in the campaign, today we would have been celebrating promotion.

“Now we shall head to Croatia where our goal will be to wrap this campaign on a high.”

Man-of-the-match James O’Brien said: “It was by far our best match at home. Every member in the team gave everything he got for us to beat Sweden. The crowd was great... their support pushed us to this impressive result.

“I feel that there is more to come from this team and I hope that the fans will remain behind us.”