The annual rugby fest for touring sides took place at Marsa and, as usual, a lot of enjoyment went along with some sparkling rugby.
Two Maltese clubs, Kavallieri and Overseas took on English clubs from Ealing (London), St Ives, Thurston and Swanage-Wareham.
Weak tackling from some of the Maltese youngsters rendered their life difficult against the experienced Englishmen but it was also a good learning curve.
Ealing A started with a strong win against Overseas, 15-7, three tries to one, but two could have been avoided if the tackling had been good.
Kavallieri then thumped Ealing B 36-10, Kawara and Debierre shining.
St Ives scraped past Thurston 12-7, and then Kavallieri lost their way against Swanage, 0-24. Ealing A thrashed St Ives 43-5, when the Cambridgeshire side scored a try in the last second.
Overseas were a little careless when going down to Thurston 0-7. They had enough chances to run up a good score but managed to throw away opportunities by lack of cohesion.
Swanage swamped Ealing B 40-0, and Ealing A beat Thurston easily 31-0.
Then, astonishingly, Overseas allowed St Ives to beat them 24-0 when they had more of the territorial play.
The play-offs began and because of the exhaustion factor, some were settled by the unique fun contests prevalent in Rugby Tours.
In the first semi-final, Ealing A were lucky to beat an enhanced Kavallieri side with a try which was allowed after a player’s foot touched the line. Swanage took on St Ives, hammering them 24-0.
The final was between Ealing A and Swanage and Wareham.
The London side were firm favourites as they play in a much higher division in England, and from the start of the competition they had made it clear they were expecting to win.
Swanage imposed early territorial pressure and tackled the fast Ealing backs hard to stifle their talent. However, towards the end of the first half, Ealing came back and seemed to be the fitter side as they exerted pressure of their own.
The first half ended 0-0, and at the stage it looked as though Ealing would seal it in the second half.
Swanage were not going to let them, however. From the kick-off, they caught well and controlled the ball with pick and go for the first few minutes, until a penalty gave Ealing the opportunity to put pressure from a driving line-out.
However, Swanage ripped the ball away from them and worked up to halfway.
Some clever kicks took Swanage into the Ealing territory and scored a good try after a move off the back of the line-out.
From then on, they had the psychological advantage, and scored a fine try after some drives from the line-out of their own to emerge as 12-0 winners.