Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/811845
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 APRIL 2017 53 RUGBY FORMULA 1 Sport Overseas power their way to victory over Falcons BRYAN CORLETT A lot was riding on this Cisk La- ger League game, if Swieqi Over- seas were to win it, then that would take them into a Grand Fi- nal against Sliema Stompers for the Championship. It was a free flowing game with both teams trying to play expan- sive ball in hand Rugby, using the width of the field and running from deep, but it was the ability of the Overseas team to turn defence into attack, that won the day by 38 points to 7. Overseas kicked off with the wind at their backs, knowing that they needed to be up by a good score at halftime, which they could then defend in the second half playing into the wind. Both teams were devoid of a few of their "A" players and Falcons were short on numbers in the reserves for this Easter weekend. Overseas went on the attack with their big units Matt Stoker(1) and Matty Jones(3) carrying strongly giving their backline good ball moving forward and with Cam- eron Brown(15) looking to enter the backline at every opportunity, it was he who scored the first try running strongly going right, with the Christian Briffa(10) conver- sion Overseas had their noses in front by 7 to 0. George Corner playing at No 8 scored the next try after his fel- low forwards had crashed it up with George Mumphidze(16) and Anthony Harvey(6) breaking the Falcon's defensive line, pushing the score out to 12 nil with the conversion drifting away. Falcon's just could not get any momentum or phase play going, they would recycle a few times only for an Overseas player to get a turnover and they would run it back downfield. So it was for Cameron Brown's second try from a wide ranging backline move to run around behind the posts to make the conversion easier for Briffa, with Referee Sam Ramage blowing for halftime with the score at Overseas 19, Falcons 0. Falcons kicked off the second half with the ball sailing down- field, pushed by a strong wind putting Overseas under pressure close to their line with Tyson Freeman(8), Andrew Vella(7) and Daniel Holliday(3) on the charge giving playmaker Julian Galea(9) good ball whipping it out quickly into the safe hands of Drinu Vel- la(10) and there on his shoulder was the straight running Aaron Borg(12) who split the Overseas defence to score a fine try, con- verted by Galea(9) bringing the score closer at 19 to 7. At that point in the game Fal- cons went into overdrive forc- ing Overseas to defend their line for about 15 minutes, a number of promising moves by the lively Vinnie Cost-Critien(11) almost brought results, but the bounce of the ball did not go their way. A Falcon's lost lineout on the Overseas tryline cost them dearly as Overseas ran it back down the pitch with Chris Borg(14) using his speed and swerve to break 80 metres downfield, as he was tackled by the last line of defence Kawara(15) he offloaded to a steaming George Corner(8) on his shoulder, who scored an uncon- verted try to make it 24 to 7 and break the Falcons players' hearts. Again Falcons went on the at- tack throwing caution to the wind, but a pass that held up in the wind was swooped upon by Beppe Sam- mut(13) who ran straight from halfway to put Nicolas Busdra- go(12) in for the try converted by Briffa. Overseas 31 Falcons 7. Overseas were playing with con- fidence and another long range try was scored by Roderick Borg(14) who had a steady game through- out, converted by Briffa to make the final score: Overseas 38 Fal- cons 7, taking Swieqi Overseas through to a Grand Final against Sliema Stompers on the 13th May. Men of the Match: Overseas: George Corner. Falcons: Vinne Cost-Critien(with a thumbs up for the effort of Martin Barbara(5) Next Saturday Malta will be play- ing against Israel in a European Conference 1 South game, at the Hibernian's Stadium in Paola, with the kickoff at 14.00hrs. Be There! PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSEPH BORDA Bottas scores his first F1 pole in Bahrain VALTTERI Bottas has taken his maiden Formula One pole position after beating Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.023s in Saturday's qualifying session for the 2017 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bah- rain Grand Prix. Spicing up the mix for tomorrow's race, Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari was joined on the second row by Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, with their team mates Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstap- pen a row further back. Renault had a superb session under the floodlights, with Nico Hulkenberg seventh and Jolyon Palmer 10th. Between the yellow cars, Williams' Felipe Massa and Haas's Romain Grosjean complet- ed the top ten. Under the evening sky, and in cooler temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius for the track and 30 air, Hamilton set the initial pace with 1m 30.814s in Q1, running Pirelli's soft tyres. Verstappen was his clos- est challenger on supersofts, with 1m 30.904s, with Raikkonen third on 1m 30.988s from Vettel on softs on 1m 31.037s. As Palmer's eighth and Pascal Wehrlein's 14th for Sauber were notable, power loss stymied a fast but frustrated Carlos Sainz as his Toro Rosso stopped, leaving him 16th on 1m 32.188s ahead of brake- troubled Stoffel Vandoorne on 1m 32.313s for McLaren, Sergio Perez, remarkably, on only 1m 32.318s for Force India, Marcus Ericsson's Sauber on 1m 32.543s and Kevin Magnussen's Haas on 1m 32.900s. Some of these were hurt by the flags for Sainz's stoppage. Excitingly, Hamilton just aced Bottas in Q2, with 1m 29.535s to 1m 29.555s, and then Vettel joined them with 1m 29.596s. It couldn't get much closer. Then Raikkonen popped in 1m 29.43s, leaving Ver- stappen and Ricciardo trailing with 1m 30.307s and 1m 30.497s. A broken power unit accounted for Fernando Alonso's McLaren, leaving him 15th, without a time. But all around him there was dra- ma. Williams gambled on leaving Massa in the garage after he'd gone seventh on 1m 30.677s, but Hulk- enberg leapt to fifth for Renault on 1m 30.169s shortly after being bumped by team mate Palmer. That left the fortunate Massa eighth, and Palmer, 10th behind a delighted Grosjean, still made his first Q3 of the year. The unlucky ones alongside Alonso were Daniil Kvyat on 1m 30.923s for Toro Rosso; Wil- liams' Lance Stroll, who didn't get out until late because of front- end problems, got into Q3 on 1m 31.168s, then got bumped in the last-minute flurries; the impres- sive Wehrlein on 1m 31.414s; and Esteban Ocon for Force India on 1m 31.684s. So, as ever, it all came down to Q3. And whoever made the fewest mistakes. Would they beat Hamil- ton's 2016 pole time of 1m 29.423s at last? After the first runs, the two Mer- cedes were at the front, Hamilton smashing his 2016 figure with 1m 28.792s, Bottas, on 1m 28.844s, right on his tail. The Ferraris were a little breathless in their wake, Vettel on 1m 29.247s, an under- steering Raikkonen on 1m 29.684s. Verstappen got into that territory with 1m 29.687s, while Ricciardo was sixth with 1m 30.007s. The answer was no. He failed to improve, as did most of the re- ally fast boys, with 1m 29.012s. But Bottas found what he needed, and took his first premier slot with 1m 28.769s, beating his team mate by just two-hundredths of a second after a fine effort. Vettel stayed third, failing to im- prove with 1m 29.634s, but though Raikkonen did, with 1m 29.567s, Ricciardo had got it all together to jump to fourth with 1m 29.545s. Verstappen stayed on 1m 29.687s, dropping to sixth, while Hulken- berg great run to 1m 29.842s left him seventh. Massa improved to 1m 30.074s for eighth ahead of Grosjean on 1m 30.763s, while Palmer, though delighted to make Q3, was disappointed with a lowly 1m 31.074s for 10th. Thus the provisional grid will line up: Bottas, Hamilton; Vettel, Ricciardo; Raikkonen, Verstap- pen; Hulkenberg, Massa; Grosjean, Palmer; Kvyat, Stroll; Wehrlein, Ocon; Alonso, Sainz; Vandoorne, Perez; Ericsson, Magnussen.