Birkirkara 0
Kavallieri 65

On a warm and sunny day, the conditions were perfect for running rugby.

Unfortunately for Birkirkara, the running was mainly backwards as they spent the whole game chasing Kavallieri’s kicking game, and looked a completely different package from the one that beat Overseas the previous week.

Kavallieri opened the scoring on nine minutes, with a penalty awarded against Freeman for holding on, and kicked by Jo Cutajar.

They then exerted sustained pressure on the Birkirkara line before Jonathan Bonnici shuffled across the goal and passed to Matt Brushwood, who touched down under the posts.

From the kick-off, Jason Grima caught the ball deep in his own half, and cleverly jinked his way to the Birkirkara five-metre line, before putting Bonnici in to score.

On 30 minutes, Brushwood was yellow-carded for coming in from the side, but Birkirkara failed to use the advantage of the extra man, their kicking failing to find touch.

The next try came from a cleverly-worked move started by Dan Moore who was beginning to boss the midfield. He set up Grima to pass to Tom Aquilina who slipped over to score.

Six minutes later, Jason Pace rumbled over in a maul to score.

On half-time, Moore chipped a beautifully-weighted kick to the right corner for Ed Cassar to gather and touch down.

The second half started with Kavallieri 34 points up, and they lost no time in adding to their score. Man-of-the-match Moore picked up a loose fly to score.

Nick Horne then grabbed two quick tries from almost identical moves, breaking through weak tackles on both occasions.

By this stage, Birkirkara had completely lost their shape and Kavallieri were scoring at will.

Darren Westwood picked up an interception to score down the right wing, and Ed Cassar weaved his way through a maze of players to bag the final try before referee Steve Busuttil blew the whistle to end this one-sided affair.