Overseas 13
Stompers TGIF 37
Stompers started on a high with a series of hard-running and driving attacks. However, Overseas held out well and when a fine kick by fly half Sean Duffy cleared the line to launch their own attacking series, Paul Sparling grabbed the lead for his team with a penalty.
The match swung back and forth. Overseas full-back Carmelo Boccaccini left the field with an injury and a good position for Stompers was wasted following a bad kick by Australian Christopher Morten.
Suddenly, head prop Dragan Cerketa, who is learning to play to his weight, burst through and offloaded to the equally strong John Ellul for a try to give Stompers the lead.
Morten then made up for his previous error to make a superb dummy, break and 75-metre run for a superb try. Overseas hit back with a try from former Stompers tight head prop Neil West, which was followed by a Jason Cornthwaite try to put Stompers ahead at 15-8 at half-time.
Stompers pushed on with a Luke Debattista try after some finely timed passing. That inspired Overseas into territorial advantage from which the ball was spun out to Dario Azzopardi for a try to keep his team in the game.
However, Stompers began to turn the screw and dominate. Clayton Cassar (Overseas) and Christoffel Diamantino (Stompers) were both yellow carded for a silly tussle. Further tries were scored for Stompers by centre Mario Fountain, Morten and substitute Jan Zammit, one was converted by Jovan Reljic, who was then also yellow carded.
Man of the match: Christoffel Diamantino (Stompers).
Referee: Steven Busuttil.
Alligators 27
Kavallieri 62
Alligators' progress continues as they proved to be no pushovers... until the last quarter of the match.
Kavallieri burst into action and Roderick Attard scored a good try almost immediately but Alligators replied with a fine try by Jamie Acheson who converted it to give his side the lead.
Back came centre Reuben Vella, a welcome return after injury, with a Kavallieri try, converted by Attard, to which he added a penalty.
Then new Alligators full-back Patrick Cape scored a try with an evasive solo run from half-way, only to hurt his arm and had to leave the field. Jamie Acheson converted this, too, and added two penalties to put Alligators back in front.
Action was non-stop as Daniel Grima scored two tries, one converted by Attard, to give Kavallieri a 27-20 lead at half-time.
Kavallieri, who have a perfect record of six wins from as many matches, opened the second half with a slice of luck when Andrea Camilleri was awarded a try after touching the corner flag, only for Acheson to intercept and run in some 60 metres under the posts.
Alligators right-wing Keith Grixti was yellow carded for a high tackle and this really sapped the stamina out of his team. Scrum-half Beppe Sammut has developed a bad habit of taking quick penalties and running away from his own support which wasted much of Alligators' potential.
Robert Bonavia, at number 8, began a series of devastating runs for Kavallieri. One of them was supported by left flanker Joseph Cutajar who flipped to Sean Doublesin to score, converted by Attard.
Substitute David Borg came on for Kavallieri and his experience immediately showed as he won two balls off the head which launched Bonavia to set up tries by Sean Doublesin and Daniel Grima, both converted by Attard.
Bonavia scored a try himself as Alligators tired out and young substitute Dario Schembri, up from the juniors, scored his first try in his first match, converted by Attard.
Man of the match: Jamie Acheson (Alligators).
Referee: Samuel Ramage.