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52 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 MARCH 2016 Sport RUGBY Falcons continue to dominate Overseas rout Kavallieri Ladies Sevens League Cisk Lager League PHIL GIBBS Overseas v Kavallieri 5-21 With Falcons looking unassail- able at the top of the league, Kav- allieri and Overseas locked horns in the battle for runners-up spot. From the kick off, Overseas pushed hard in the attack, pinning Kavalli- eri down in their own 22. Overseas were struggling to establish an early rhythm, and after a sustained spell of pressure when they were put on the back foot, the ball broke loose to Sixtine Chambouton who spilled the ball forward. Playing the advan- tage, Amanda Cassar picked up, cut left and made 20 metres of valuable ground before unleashing a pass to supporting runner Jacqueline Rich- ard, who made no mistake with the finish. Cassar converted to give Kav- allieri the early lead 7-0. From the restart, Sairita Cassar smashed her way through the centre to the Kavallieri 22-metre line, but Chambouton held on in the tackle and Kavallieri won a penalty. They ran it back to halfway, and from the ensuing ruck, Cassar, who was sorely missed by Kavallieri last week, dashed down the left wing, neatly sidestepped the onrushing tack- ler, and darted over to touch down under the posts. She converted her own try to leave the half-time score at 14-0 In the second half, Overseas made a cardinal error from the kick off af- ter Overseas knocked on. The ball was picked up by Sairita Cassar but, with the referee playing advantage, she stood still in anticipation of the whistle. Quick as a flash, Maria Spi- teri plucked the ball from her hands, ran half the length of the pitch and scored under the sticks. Amanda Cassar struck the conversion cleanly to bag the extra two points and give Kavallieri a 21 point lead. Shortly afterwards, Kavallieri lost Abby Attard to the sin bin for a high tackle, and this seemed to rouse Overseas from their uncharacteris- tic torpor, and they launched their first meaningful attack from half- way. The ball went cleanly through four pairs of Overseas hands before Cassar knocked on with the try line in sight. From the scrum, Kavallieri won the ball and Galea threw a pass to Myra Bonello, who attempted an impossibly long pass out to her winger. Wendy Pace pounced on the misdemeanour and intercepted the ball to leave her an easy run to the line. With 5 points under their belts, Overseas started to find some much-needed passion, and only a deliberate knock on by Rich- ard foiled a dangerous breakaway move. With Richard in the sin-bin, Overseas pressed Kavallieri back from the penalty on halfway to the 5-metre line. Sairita Cassar broke through the defence again and her pass found Noemi Perez lurking on the left wing. Instead of touching down, she tried to run in under the posts and was bundled over the dead ball line to waste the scoring oppor- tunity. The final whistle came soon after, and Kavallieri left the field 21- 5 to the good. Star player – Amanda Cassar Referee – Sam Ramage Falcons vs Kavallieri 27-5 In the morning's second game, Fal- cons beat Kavallieri 27-5, with two tries coming from Kimberly Riolo, and one each for Sylvia Gambino, Caroline Gafa and Marion Azzo- pardi. Kavallieri scored their only points when Falcons' Kimberly Rio- lo was yellow carded for putting in a reckless high tackle on Maria Spi- teri, stopping her from scoring a cer- tain try. The penalty try should have come then, but the referee waited until the next infringement under the posts before awarding it. Falcons vs Overseas 31-5 In the final match, Falcons out- played Overseas to win 31-5, with a brace of tries from the free-scoring Sylvia Gambino in the first half and one from Kimberly Riolo. She scored again in the second half, and Marion Azzopardi also ran in what turned out to be the best try of the day, when she beat four tacklers in a 50-metre jinking run to the line. Sairita Cassar scored a fine consola- tion try for Overseas. MIKE TURNER OVERSEAS vs KAVALLIERI 33- 0 From the start Kavallieri were struggling because they had so many players absent from the first team squad through injury and work commitments, which even required last minute place swap- ping. In fact Overseas wrapped up the result in the first 20 min- utes by running up 19 points with tries from Ledouw, Mumpihaza and Duchange, two conversions by Briffa. The game was lost by the time Kavallieri settled down. There were two yellow card vis- its to the ten minute sinbin for Douw of Overseas and Corbin of Kavallieri. Kavallieri were brave but disorganised and even when their tight scrum had an advan- tage they were clumsy and slow, thinking and Overseas were able to defend fairly easily. On the contrary the speedy Overseas backs were always threatening. Stivala at scrum half was a huge inf luence, despite being a little too relaxed at times, and Briffa's return added a steady inf luence at f ly half. However he returned to his annoying habit of turning towards the recipient of his pass- es and taking one or two steps, which concertina's up his back- line, losing two or three metres of vital space for the winger. Over- seas added a further converted try to bring the half time score to 26 – 0. The wind was behind Kavalli- eri for the second half and they were beginning to work more as a team unit, gaining ground and exerting pressure, but they lacked the final skills to make a score. Susnjara and Horne in the centre, together with Lewis made several penetrating runs and Debierre was a tower of strength through- out. Zahra was moved into scrum half and improved as the game went on. Full back Blyton was his usual self in mixing excellent moves with horrible mistakes. Darren Edmunds was very in- f luential with his kicking, work rate, and experienced position- ing. Overseas backs showed great promise all through the second half but despite the speedy and evasive running by Douw, Du- change, Stivala and others they found it difficult to break down the defence and determination of Kavallieri, and only managed one converted try by Gauci in the sec- ond half. The management also tried to give the whole squad a run out and in the second half there were lots of changes, which can dis- rupt. Harvey was his usual solid self and by the end his scrum was getting the better of the tight and even won two or three hooks against the head. For Kavallieri the veterans Miller, Zammit and Doublesin were inf luential in steadying the discipline and morale – in a match which entertained, despite the errors and sometime loose kicking. In the other match Stompers 53 vs Gladiators 24. PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN AQUILINA