Stompers          31
Kavallieri         7

Stompers started with a burst, taking the game to a Kavallieri side that was missing a few players from their previous match.

Ryan Sullivan was impressive hitting the defensive wall time and again in those first few minutes as Stompers showed their intent to play a physical, fast-paced game.

The strong running of Jeremy Debattista soon came to the fore as he sped through the Kavallieri defence and then swung the ball out to winger Thomas Bugeja to score – try unconverted.

Stompers were quick to tackle as Isaac Bezzina was dominating in the lineout and charging around the field, making life difficult for the Kavallieri inside backs.

Bezzina broke from a scrum and carried strongly, brushing off would-be tacklers to score another Stompers’ try (unconverted) – 10-0.

Kavallieri tried hard to produce continuity in their play but to no avail. They hit their best patch, attacking the Stompers line for some ten minutes, going over the tryline a couple of times but not being able to ground the ball.

Jake Pace had a great run weaving his way upfield, putting his team into an attacking position but as he offloaded Richard Gum smashed the ball-carrier to stop a certain try.

Then, from a Kavallieri attacking scrum, a couple of pick and goes and Josef Borg crashed over to score. Try converted by Brendan Dalton – 10-7.

But Stompers regained the upperhand and scored again on the stroke of half-time.

Luke Debattista broke from a scrum, weaved his way through the defence and offloaded to Chris Betts who scored. Gum converted the try and at half-time Stompers led 17-7.

Stompers started the second half like the first, mostly in attack.

Gum ran at the defence and sold a dummy, which everyone bought, and went over untouched.

With the conversion, Stompers now opened a commanding 24-7 advantage.

Kavallieri needed to score fast, but Stompers were too organised to let them in. On one occasion, Bugeja and Dalton ran down the grandstand touchline but were bundled into touch.

Debiere, back from injury for Kavallieri, showed his speed down the touchline, but just when he looked like scoring he was hit from behind.

Kavallieri’s hopes of a comeback were practically dashed when Maylor pounced on a loose ball and ran in to score, 31-7 after conversion.

Even a yellow card for Cerketa didn’t slow down Stompers as they busted loose downfield with Malcolm Attard running strongly but Dalton tracked him down and took his legs away and the offload was dropped.

That’s where the game ended.

Men of the match: Gary Hili (Stompers), Brendan Dalton (Kavallieri).