Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/208710
50 Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2013 SPORTTODAY RUGBY PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Rampant Malta destroy Croatia Malta.................... 37 Croatia.................. 18 MIKE TURNER MAGNIFICENT Malta rugby men dazzled a physically strong Croatia, who have so often been a bogey team who stole results 7 times out of 9 fix- tures in the past. There was a time, just after half time that the match was on the verge of swinging back towards Croatia, but Damien Neills men pulled themselves together and surged well ahead of the hard, fast but predictable Croats. At the start Malta posted notice that their style would be fast and varied and were soon attacking to gain a penalty which O'Brien missed. Then swift and accurate passing released Kirk from fullback to score, O'Brien converting – 7-0 to Malta. Morris was kicking with great accuracy to gain territory and the excellent Malta line out robbed possession, from the possession Sacco chipped into the corner and Captain Busuttil burrowed over for try, again converted by O'Brien. The swift running andhandling of Malta was confusing the opposition/ Croatia concentrated on slowing the game down and using superior weight and strength to grind out a win and for a while this began to take effect. An unusual poor kick by Motrris gave away possession and finally they showed threat with a well thought back move, worked down into the corner and with a series of scissor moves created an overlap to score wide. Shortly afterwards they pressed territorially and converted a penalty to bring the score back to 14-8. The Croats concentrated on a hard hitting charging game , obviously hoping to wear down the lighter Maltese, and the first half ended at 14-8 to Malta, only a slender lead. The start of the second half saw a nice try by Apsee for Malta as they dragged in the defence to create an overlap, but for a period the strong arm tactics of the visitors looked to be having an effect. To worsen mat-