Malta 5
Tunisia 19

On Wednesday, in a first-ever meeting between the two countries, the Maltese team, now sponsored by the MIA, were taught some lessons by the renowned Tunisians, who train twice a day, during a friendly at Marsa.

In the first half, Malta were clearly a new team and were comparatively disjointed, whereas the visitors showed constant team support in good positioning and superb off loading.

Whenever a Tunisia player was stopped, she threw a pass to the support she knew would be there, coupled with good angles and directional switches, which gave them the initiative.

On the whole, the Maltese girls defended well, Aquilina and Sultana making strong tackles but captain Azzopardi was completely outsmarted by the angled and balanced run from Ofa for Tunisia’s second try, to build a 12-0 lead at half-time.

However, as always, the Maltese girls were quick to learn and the second half was very different with the hosts having the better territorially and Azzopardi making amends with a powerful captain’s try.

Gauci’s attempted conversion was unsuccessful and it is clear that the kicking must be carefully coached.

Unfortunately, Sultana allowed her enthusiasm to overflow and she was yellow-carded for persistent offending and while she was off, the ever threatening Ofa scored again.

Nevertheless, the match ended with a try apiece and the Maltese national team should be pleased with their showing. As usual, the Malta ladies were in fine partying form in the aftermatch celebrations.

Tunisia has a strong rugby tradition, the men having reached the World Sevens Finals and the women have played in Fiji and South Africa.