The Malta Rugby Football Union (MRFU) is banking on the passionate support of the Maltese fans to inspire the national team to a great performance against Poland in tomorrow's European Group 2 B qualifier at the Hibs Ground (kick-off 3 p.m.).
Malta are fourth in the five-team standings with 10 points from six matches, one point above bottom-placed Andorra who host the Maltese in another qualifier tomorrow week.
As the team finishing last in the group will be demoted to Division 3 next season, victory for Damien Neill's men tomorrow will all but secure Malta's status in Division 2B.
However, the Maltese have an arduous task as they face a Polish team who have already clinched promotion to Division 2A next season as they top the group with 19 points from seven matches. In their last outings, both Malta and Poland faced Latvia. While Malta scraped past the Latvians 16-13, the Poles showed all their strength in a crushing 55-0 win.
MRFU president Martin Galea told a news conference yesterday that although Malta are in for a hard encounter, is confident that the presence of a huge crowd at the Hibs Ground could have an uplifting effect on the national team.
"It's no secret that Poland are a very strong team," Galea said. "We have already met them twice and on both occasions, they proved much stronger than us. However, this time I feel that our team has the ability to gain the much-needed win against Poland.
"In rugby, the support of the fans is very important and Malta have gained some outstanding results in the past when backed by a strong crowd. We hope Saturday will be another fairytale for our team and I appeal to all fans to encourage our boys."
Sean Doublesin, the national team manager, said the players, having just returned from a short training camp in the UK, are in a very good shape.
"The training camp in the UK was a great success," Doublesin said. "We put strong emphasis on physical preparation and we can already see that the players have benefited a lot from the experience."
Coach Damien Neill has five new faces in his 22-man squad, namely Adrian Bartolo, Andrew Galea, Clayton Cassar, Luke Vella and Paul Calgaro. Nick Warren and Tom Watts are ruled out by injuries while Michael Jarrett and James Hollister pulled out of the squad due to work commitments.
Malta squad: A. Bartolo, K. Mason, I. Borda, A. Galea, M. McArdle, H. Collins, D. Psaila, D. Borg, C. Cassar, M. Bonavia , S. Kempster, G. Kennedy, J. Finlason, M. Mirabelli, J. Bartolo, P. Calgaro, L. Vella, D. Busuttil, O. Sacco, L. Culnane, P. Marzella, R. Spiteri.
Standings: Poland 19; Latvia, Croatia 15; Malta 10; Andorra 9.