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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2015 Sport 37 BRYAN CORLETT - MRFU STOMPERS kick off this Cisk Lager League with the wind at their backs pushing Overseas deep into their 22 metre area. Stompers start their game where they left off from last week against Kavallieri, with ball in hand, front foot Rugby. Inside 10 minutes Stompers have scored their first try with Holliday (2) running out in the backs, going over 10 metres from touch. McLister (10) converts, it's Stompers 7 Overseas 0. Overseas using the strength of their forwards take a rolling maul 20 me- tres upfield, but when it is released to the backs with a promising move, the pass is dropped in the centres. Op- portunity lost. From a scrum Cassar (8) runs and tries to steer his supporting scrumhalf Holland into a gap but he is pushed into touch. Stompers under pressure on their line kick deep, the Overseas fullback and wing both let the ball bounce, the Stompers forwards clear out in the tackle, two quick passes puts Camilleri (13) in just to the right of the posts. McLister converts, it's Stompers 14 Overseas 0. Overseas can't seem to get into the game and in their desperation are in- fringing, a forward going off his feet gives McLister (10) a kick at goal from 35 metres out. Stompers 17 Over- seas 0 and still trying to get into the game. Overseas from a scrum go right and Briffa (10) grubbers through for his winger Nunoz (11) to outstrip the defence and score in the corner. With the conversion missing but finally Overseas are on the scoreboard with Stompers 17 Overseas 5. Overseas have upped their game and put some phases together on at- tack, Briffa (10) again grubber kicks behind the Stompers backs but Betts (15) covers and runs it into touch. From a scrum 20 metres out Cassar (8) breaks and fends off two tackles and scores10 metres from the posts. Briffa converts and Overseas are playing catch up. There's 10 minutes of to-ing and fro-ing as first Overseas drop the ball from the kickoff and then from the scrum Cerketta is penalised from holding onto the ball in the tackle and Overseas are able to clear their line with a long kick downfield, taking the pressure off. At this point Referee Killian O'Brien whistles for half time. Overseas kick off with the wind behind them in the second half and there is a sense that Stompers may not have a large enough lead to hold Overseas out, now with the wind in their favour. Overseas have brought on George at scrumhalf and Nahon at Hooker to boost their resolve. Briffa has a shot at goal from a pen- alty, it drifts right and ex Spanish In- ternational Marchon (8) runs it out of goal and upfield, he is having a good game, tidying up loose ball. Overseas are playing a lot of Rugby in the Stompers half but they can't seem to finish off any moves. Stomp- ers again get a hold of the ball and work it upfield and close to the line Camilleri (13) gets a hold of the ball and powers his way over. It is now Stompers 22 Overseas 12. Around this time Borg (12) gets yellow carded and is off for 10 min- utes for a series of offences. Overseas again attack the Stompers' line and spend 10 minutes trying to score, one movement is lost when a Stompers player takes the inside pass meant for Stivala (13) and a certain scoring op- portunity is lost. An attacking Overseas line out is lost when Hooker Nahon overthrows, the Stompers backline sets off upfield with quick hands, Betts (15) goes on an arcing run to beat the fullback and scores under the posts. With the con- version it is now Stompers 29 Over- seas 12 and Stompers are playing bet- ter against the wind. Now out in front by more than two tries the Stompers are playing with confidence, moving the ball through the hands, offload- ing in the tackle and swatting off the tacklers they score again with Camill- eri (13) busting over from close gets his hat trick. Overseas Vella is yellow carded for an infringement, he is off for 10 min- utes. Overseas are desperate now and it shows as they attack the Stompers tryline with two great individual tries to Harvey (9) from a Briffa offload, bursting down the middle to score under the posts and then Cassar from a scrum steps and fends his way to score under the posts. With two quick fire conversions it's now Stompers 36 Overseas 26 but the clock is ticking, Overseas have left their run too late and will rue their lost opportunities to keep the pres- sure on the Stompers, who with this win have won the Cisk Lager League competition. Final score Stompers 36 Overseas 26. Match Officials voted "Man of the Match" to Ryan McLister. Today's other scores: Gladiators 30 Stompers "B" 5 Kavallieri 45 Falcons 0. Next commitment for the Clubs will be the Mediterranean Bank Cup Compe- titions which starts next Saturday. RUGBY PHOTOGRAPHY: MRFU/MARIA VELLA-GALEA Unconvincing France scrape past Scotland in Six Nations opener Ireland defeat uninspiring Italy FRANCE look set for a difficult Six Nations campaign after labouring to a 15-8 home win against Scotland in their opening game on Saturday. Philippe Saint-Andre's side, playing in unfamiliar red jerseys, scored all their points through Camille Lopez's boot while Scotland, a more formi- dable team since former Clermont coach Vern Cotter took over last year, had Dougie Fife to thank for a superb first-half try. Greig Laidlaw scored one penalty for the visitors, who could have beat- en France in Paris for the first time since 1999 had they handled the ball better. France are second in the standings behind holders Ireland who beat Italy 26-3 earlier on Saturday and ahead of England, third following their 21-16 victory against Wales on Friday. "It's a win but we should have done better," Saint-Andre said afterwards. Rory Kockott was handed his first France start in the absence of the in- jured Sebastian Tillous-Borde but he was replaced by Morgan Parra before the hour after an unconvincing dis- play. Lopez put France in front with an early penalty but they wasted their possession with useless kicking and Laidlaw levelled with a penalty. But with plenty of ball to play with, the hosts, who finished a poor fourth in the championship last year, were the more dangerous side and Lopez slotted a second penalty after Scot- land were sanctioned for offside. Stuart Hogg danced past two tack- lers to come within inches of a try but was stopped by Scott Spedding. Scotland continued to press but the French defence tightened things up and forced Finn Russell to a weak drop goal attempt, which went wide. Lopez's third penalty from as many attempts after another offside gave France a six-point lead, but Scotland finally found some space to cut the deficit to one point on the stroke of halftime. Hogg's run down the left flank put the French defence off balance and Scotland played it wide onto the op- posite side where Teddy Thomas was outnumbered and could not prevent Fife from diving over. Another Lopez penalty gave France some breathing space early in the second half but the fly half's boot was all they could rely on even if his fol- lowing attempt hit the post and went wide. Scottish forward Johnnie Beattie picked up a yellow card for pulling down a moving maul just after the hour. Yoann Huget made progress to- wards the line and escaped Hogg's tackle but knocked the ball on as he was about to hand France a try. Scotland continued to play with ambition to the end but were let down again and again through poor handling. "We had chances but we didn't take them," said Russell. "It was a good try to score, just before the break and if we could have come out and backed it up we could have won but we made too many mistakes." France travel to Ireland, whom they will face at the World Cup later this year, next Saturday, and Scotland will take on Wales the following day. In the other match, Ian Keatley converted four penalties on his Six Nations debut to set holders Ireland on the way to a dour 26-3 win over an uninspiring Italy. Keatley kicked Ireland into a 12-3 lead to break Italy's resolve, then Conor Murray and Tommy O'Donnell scored tries after the hosts had hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini sent to the sin bin. Italy finished with a flourish and Kelly Haimona thought he had scored a try, but it was ruled out because of the faintest of knock-ons by Sergio Parisse amid jeers from the Stadio Olimpico crowd. Italy, who lost all their Six Nations matches last year, made too many el- ementary mistakes and never looked capable of repeating their 22-15 win of two years ago. Ireland suffered a blow before the start when Sean O'Brien, set to make his first international appearance for 15 months after undergoing two shoulder reconstructions, suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up and was replaced by O'Donnell. "It was a slog, any time you come to Rome you're expecting a slog but we knew if we kept chipping away, we'd break them down," Ireland's Rob Kearney said after the match. Keatley gave Ireland an early lead after George Biagi got into an offside position in what became a frustrating routine for the hosts. Ireland were awarded another pen- alty when Luke McLean picked up the ball in an offside position and Keatley confidently sent his kick between the posts. He increased the lead to nine points after Italy gave away another penalty for offside when second row Joshua Furno got on the wrong side of a maul. Italy enjoyed a spell of pressure just before halftime and were rewarded when, following an Irish infringe- ment at the maul, Haimona got them on the scoreboard with the last kick of the half. Ireland began the second-half with more pressure and Keatley restored their nine-point advantage after It- aly were penalised for wheeling the scrum. However, Ireland rarely looked like scoring a try until Ghiraldini was sent to the sin bin. Almost immediately, Ireland, who chalked up their eighth successive international win, won the ball at a line-out and Murray picked up the ball and dived over the line. Two minutes later, O'Donnell slipped through a gap, shrugged off a tackle and ran from the 22-metre line to plant the ball under the posts. Keatley and Ian Madigan kicked the respective conversions. Stompers win the Cisk Lager League defeating Overseas