There is hope that the enthusiasm generated by the national team in this early stage of the new season will help the Malta Rugby Football Union to develop the local game and push the levels higher, organisation head Steve Busuttil told a news conference yesterday.

Last week, the national team kicked off their commitments in the European Conference One South qualifiers with an emphatic 63-15 win over Andorra in La Vella.

The victory margin was the country’s highest on the international scene since making their debut in 2000.

Busuttil said the national team’s result in Andorra injected an instant feel-good factor in the local game and now the MRFU is keen to keep the momentum going by strengthening the structure of the national league.

“Our victory in Andorra has made the headlines not only here but also on foreign media portals and that is of huge pride for our organisation,” Busuttil said.

“The national team includes a mixture of experienced and young players, providing a good selection base for our coach. We play Cyprus next and we want the fans to give us their backing at the Hibs Stadium which is very important on such occasions.”

Busuttil, who was appointed MRFU president last month, is planning to introduce new initiatives in the game to make the national championship more attractive.

“We want to take the local game to a higher level and to achieve that we need to look at several areas of the game,” he said.

“For sure the level of our coaches has to keep growing and the same goes for refereeing.

“To this aim we’ll be holding a series of programmes and courses along the season.

“At present, we have a restricted number of match officials so we need more referees to rely on. Our Scottish and Italian counterparts have pledged to support us in this sector. They will be providing us with technical assistance and knowhow and good education to our upcoming officials.

“On the field, we shall introduce a second tier which will take a developmental format.

“The idea behind this initiative is to give those players who don’t feature regularly in the first team more game time and an opportunity to express their talent.”

Strong squad

National team coach Damien Neill said he was impressed with the quality he has in his squad.

“I think this is the strongest group we’ve ever had for many years,” Neill remarked.

“The MRFU has invested a lot in young Maltese players and our work is now starting to reap dividends. Today we have a good crop of players coming up and challenging seriously for places.

“Against Andorra we had all players in the squad on the field but our performance level was  never affected despite the changes… that says a lot about the quality of this team.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s match against Cyprus, Neill is confident his players can build on their victory in Andorra.

“Cyprus and Andorra are both relatively unknown opponents as we haven’t played against them for a few years,” Neill said.

“Lately, Cyprus were playing in lower divisions to ours but we still have to see their potential in this qualifying phase.”