Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/591015
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2015 57 Sport RUGBY FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN AQUILINA Gladiators suffer heavy defeat against Kavallieri Kavallieri ................... 71 Gladiators ................. 3 GAIL DEBONO GLADIATORS suffered a huge blow to their ego yesterday upon a loss of 71-3 to Kavallieri. The first half alone saw nine tries be- ing scored, although the teams, to their credit, managed to keep the game exciting to the very end, although the many substitutions by Kavallieri did disrupt the mo- mentum of the game. By half time, the score was 57-3 to Kavallieri. Joseph Cutajar stood out for them, for many reasons, all of them good, but mainly for being the player to score three tries himself. Gladiators had many players out of position, being forced to swap even more around due to injuries and a blood substitution. The 3 points for Gladiators were through a penalty scored by Sam Firth. The rest of the points were scored for Kavallieri through tries by Nicholas Grech, Patrice De- biere, David Lewis, Frankie Im- broll, Nick Horne - who scored two in a row - Sammy Kawara, and Brenton Miller. The conver- sions were all scored by Darren Edmunds, except for one by Chris Zahra. Suffice it to say that Gladi- ators have a lot of work to do this season, if they're going to avoid score like they suffered at this game. Sexwale to stand for FIFA presidency SOUTH African businessman and former political prisoner Tokyo Sexwale will stand for the presi- dency of soccer's world governing body FIFA, a spokesman confirmed on Saturday. "He is South Africa's candidate and we hope he will be all of Africa's candidate," spokesman Peter Paul Ngwenya told Reuters. The South African Football Association (SA- FA) said on Twitter that it fully sup- ported Sexwale's candidacy in the election, which is due in February. Tokyo Sexwale New Zealand wear down South Africa in gripping semi-final NEW Zealand ground their way into the Rugby World Cup final for a record fourth time when they proved too strong, too dangerous and ultimately too streetwise for South Africa in a predictably tense 20-18 victory yesterday. Tries by Jerome Kaino and Beauden Barrett early in each half were a fair representation of the All Blacks' superior commit- ment to attack and they deserv- edly advanced to face Argentina or Australia in the final back at Twickenham next Saturday. "We did it the hard way today. It was always going to be that way but we've got a crack at it next week," said New Zealand captain Richie McCaw, who now has the chance to become the first man to hoist the Webb Ellis Cup twice. "We've been saying they would bring everything. There were no surprises and we had to dig deep to get the result." South Africa led 12-7 at halft- ime through the goal-kicking of Handre Pollard but spent most of the half defending. The majority of the first half was played in the South African half but the Springboks emerged from it five points ahead thanks to magnificent defence and the deadly boot of Pollard. New Zealand got the only try of the half after seven minutes when McCaw sent Kaino over in the corner and though Dan Carter converted, he struck the post with a later penalty. There were no such problems for Pollard, whose beautifully struck kicks bisected the posts four times after the All Blacks were continually penalised. The consolation for the hold- ers was that they would have confidence their rivals would eventually tire and if there was no improvement in their tactical kicking, they would not be able to keep out the relentless black waves. In fact the South African kick- ing got worse, inviting attack after attack, and as they lost three successive lineouts, the pressure ramped up, despite the All Blacks playing the first nine minutes of the second half with 14 after Kaino was sin-binned. Carter slotted a drop goal then the black wave went right and left to create space and send re- placement wing Barrett over for a converted try and a 17-12 lead. A penalty apiece made it 20-15 going into the final 20 minutes and Pat Lambie, on for the in- jured Pollard, landed a difficult 40-metre kick to reduce the lead to two points. As the rain lashed down and handling became difficult the two giants of the sport smashed away at each other desperate to find a gap, or force a penalty. However, after losing their opening game to Japan, South Africa have been playing knock- out rugby for five weeks and it appeared to catch up with them. They brief ly threatened when a rolling maul took them into penalty range but New Zealand, lessons learned, made sure they stayed on the right side of the ref. The holders then took control and, appropriately, ended the game deep in the South African half as they chalked up their 11th, and most important, vic- tory in their last 13 meetings with their greatest rivals.