Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/582103
maltatoday, Wednesday, 7 OctOber 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY rugby football greece pull out of World Cup qualifier in Malta the Malta rugby League (MrL) regret to announce the cancellation of the rugby League World cup Qualifier scheduled to be played at Melita Fc, Pembroke this weekend The european Championship C clash was scheduled since last winter to go ahead this Sat- urday 10 October however the governing body for Greek Rug- by League has given notice to the european governing body, the Rugby League european Federation (RLeF), that it will be unable to fulfil the champi- onship fixture. The RLeF has issued a state- ment that on 1 October the hellenic Federation of Rugby League informed the RLeF its national team would not be able to fulfil the away leg of its eu- ropean Championship C cam- paign in Malta on 10 October, citing the country's economic difficulties and the withdrawal of two sponsors. The RLeF Board has ordered an inquiry and awarded the match 30-0 to Malta. Malta are now at the top of the european Championship C standings, but the cancellation of the fixture in Malta leaves Spain in the box seat to progress to the next round after they up- set Malta 40-30 in Valencia last month. A draw or victory by any margin over Greece in Ath- ens on October 17th would see Spain top the group and face the likes of Serbia, Italy and Russia next year ahead of the World Cup in 2017. Malta have played four inter- nationals this season, three of them abroad, including their spectacular 35-34 win over Bel- gium at headingley Stadium in June. Last month, the Maltese almost upset Ireland until the 7th in the world Irish ran down the locals 34-22. Moyes wasn't a mistake - Ferguson MOyeS left everton to take charge at Old Trafford following Ferguson's retirement in 2013 but lasted just 10 months before being sacked. Ferguson, who recommended Moyes, recently suggested the former everton boss had not been first choice but defended the proc- ess by which he was appointed. Now he has gone further by say- ing Moyes was definitely the right choice at the time the decision was made. Ferguson told a BBC documen- tary: "I don't think we made a mis- take at all. I think we chose a good football man – [he] did a great job at everton, had 11 years there. We picked the right man. Unfortunately it didn't work for David." Ferguson also said that long-serv- ing player Ryan Giggs could have been his successor had he retired earlier. Giggs played on under Moyes and later took over as caretaker-manag- er after the former everton boss was sacked in April 2014. he hung up his boots at the end of that season and took up a backroom role under new manager Louis van Gaal. Ferguson said: "If Ryan Giggs had retired six or seven years ago - say he'd retired at 35, quite likely I'd have made him my assistant, and quite likely he could have moved right into the job, with the experi- ence of being assistant manager to me, as he is helping Louis van Gaal at the moment. But I would never ask a player to quit." Ferguson, who recently released his new book Leading, touched on a number of other subjects and felt Liverpool scored an own goal when they arrived at the 1996 FA Cup fi- nal, which they lost 1-0 to United, wearing cream suits. The 73-year-old said: "Why did they do that? I said to [assistant] Brian Kidd, '1-0!'. "I think that's - what would you call it? - arrogance or over-confidence? I don't know. It was absolutely ridicu- lous. Blue shirt, red-and-white tie and a white suit, and a blue flower. Who designed that? They said it was Armani. I bet his sales went down!" Ferguson was also asked to give a motivational team talk to the eu- ropean Ryder Cup team prior to last year's match against the United States at Gleneagles by captain Paul McGinley. Little detail of the talk was made public at the time, although players spoke of the positive effect it had throughout what proved a success- ful week for europe. Ferguson says that as well as tell- ing the players they were the best in europe, he also used a favourite teamwork analogy of geese migrat- ing in formation. As Giggs con- firms, Ferguson often spoke of this in training. McGinley said: "That became something that we mentioned a number of times during the week. And it was a phrase we used - 're- member the geese'. "The ironic thing is, when we won and were getting our photograph taken, this perfect 'V' of geese flew right overhead." Alex Ferguson and David Moyes