Falcons 38
Kavallieri 10
With Kavallieri flyer Jacqueline Richard out injured, Falcons went into this league encounter as favourites and they lived up to expectations following a 38-10 win.
Falcons started badly though and gave away a free-kick.
Maria Spiteri tapped, made some ground and then whipped the pass wide to Dorien Jager, who failed to catch cleanly but still palmed the ball on to Spiteri. The Kavallieri captain sprinted 50 metres down the left wing to open the scoring. Justine Zammit missed the conversion.
Falcons regrouped and struck back immediately.
Marion Azzopardi played a neat one-two with Beverie Sultana and then deftly sidestepped her tackler and ran half the length of the pitch before dotting down under the posts.
She converted her own try to put Falcons 7-5 ahead.
Falcons doubled their lead shortly after. They won the ruck and passed the ball swiftly along the line to the unmarked Azzopardi who sauntered up to the try line before unselfishly offloading to Kimberley Riolo. Again, the try was converted.
Kavallieri’s defence was in disarray now and Falcons added two more tries before half-time.
The first came from the fast-finishing Riolo but Azzopardi’s conversion hit the post. Falcons then won a scrum when a maul was held up and Azzopardi slipped the ball to Sultana who blasted 60 metres downfield to score unopposed.
The first half ended 24-5 in Falcons’ favour.
Soon after the restart, some clever interplay between Azzopardi and Vrbacka freed up space on the right for Rodianne Bugeja who showed a great turn of speed to sprint in from her own 10-metre line.
Kavallieri were let off the hook soon after when Vrbacka passed forward to Riolo in acres of space and she was denied what looked a certain try.
That miss gave Kavallieri a boost and they had their best spell of the match.
A careless penalty to Falcons seemed to have dashed their hopes but a mistimed pass found the floor and gave Spiteri a chance to kick the ball on.
Jager gathered and was grounded but popped the ball up to Annalisa Tallarida. She made ground before firing a pass to the inspired Spiteri who broke through the Falcons’ defence to score her second try of the day. The conversion was missed.
The Falcons players, however, had the last say.
Azzopardi exchanged passes with Donnavellon Sladden before spinning the ball to speedster Riolo who scorched down the right flank for a well-deserved hat-trick. The try was converted to leave Falcons the clear victors.
Best players: Maria Spiteri and Kimberley Riolo.
Other results: Falcons vs Swieqi Overseas 22-7; Swieqi Overseas vs Kavallieri 38-5.