Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
54 maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 Sports RUGBY Overseas wear down Falcons to win Overseas: ................... 22 Falcons: ..................... 17 BRYAN CORLETT THIS Cisk Lager League match between the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the competition, did not reach any great heights as a spectacle, but it was competitive throughout as both teams bashed away at each other. Visiting Referee from Toulouse Patrick Domenc got the game un- der way down at Marsa, in perfect conditions with a slight breeze fa- vouring Falcons in the first half. Overseas had a lot of the attack- ing play in the first 25 minutes, but so often they failed to convert ter- ritory into points, as the Falcon's defence kept them under pressure and forced them into errors and many a dropped ball, with the line open. Luke Galea(7)and Andrew Schembri(5) and later Postma when he came on, were providing them enough ball in the lineouts for them to do the job. Clayton Cassar(8) was back for this match and it was he who scored the first try for Overseas, from a scrum near the line he picked up at the back and forced his way over, midway between the posts and touchline, Aiden Grech's conversion brushed the uprights on the outside. Midway into the first half, finally Falcons put a series of plays to- gether in the forwards, to provide Jxan Pierre Zarb with quick ball for him to straighten his run and score a converted try with Bjorn Micallef(9) adding the extras. Tak- ing the lead 12 to 7. A lot more was expected from Overseas after their loss to Stomp- ers last week, I expected them to come out firing, with a point to prove, but they appeared a bit flat. Daniel Holliday(2) was once again leading his team from the front, popping up in the backs and driving in the forwards, he scored the next try after a period of Fal- con's pressure on the Overseas tryline, making the half time score Falcons 12, Overseas 5. The wind picked up in the sec- ond half and was there for the tak- ing, but once again there were no long kicks for territory or up and unders to create pressure, instead the ball was shovelled sideways through the hands, but finally Rhodri McKenzie(13) and Gas- ton Perez(12) began to play front foot Rugby with now Cameron Brown(15) dropping into the play- maker role at flyhalf. Still it was the work of Taber Hammond(6) who impressed, moving back to Number 8 when Cassar went off injured as his ball carrying and big tackles kept his team in the game. It was he that scored the first try in the second half running hard off a ruck, but Grech missed the conversion to make the score 12 to 10 to Falcons. Then in a 5-minute period of play the game swung dramati- cally in Overseas' direction as first they worked the ball to their right winger Chris Borg(11) and he used his pace to tip toe down the touchline to score wide out an unconverted try, to take his team into the lead at 15-12. Then from the kick off, the try of the match was scored by Perez(12), initially from another blazing run by Chris Borg down the touchline, flipping the ball inside to Perez, then again to Cameron Brown on his shoulder then back to Perez to score under the posts, in a play that had swept 75 metres down the pitch, Grech converted and Overseas were out to 22 points to 12. Sean Gregory(13) scored for Fal- cons, a try in the corner, after some busy work by Bjorn Micallef(9) to make the last five minutes of the game a tense affair for the Over- seas players and supporters, as an inspired Falcons team threw eve- rything at the line to clinch a win. But finally Falcons ran out of time, as a poor decision from a lin- eout, after a Luke Cutajar(14) run down the sideline was pushed into touch. From that lineout Overseas won the ball and a penalty, with Captain Anthony Harvey putting the ball into touch to end this game,Overseas 22, Falcons 17. Men of the Match: Overseas: Taber Hammond. Falcons: Jxan Pierre Zarb. Referee: Patrick Domenc. Assis- tant Referees: Sam Ramage & Jo- seph Cutajar. The game played on Pitch 3 ended at Stompers 51, Kavallieri 21. Ref- ereed by Sean Doublesin. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE GHIRLANDO Overseas too strong for Kavallieri Kavallieri: ..................0 Overseas: ...................32 PHIL GIBBS WITH Overseas fielding a big squad of experienced players, it was always going to be a tough call for a Kavallieri team trying to rebuild a new squad, and so it proved to be. Kavallieri knocked on from the kick-off and Overseas won the ensuing scrum, but then knocked on themselves. Howev- er, they stole the ball back on the Overseas put-in and Anna Ward slipped a nice pass to Jacqueline Richard. The speedster needed no further encouragement as she f lew down the left wing and dot- ted down under the posts to open the scoring. Wendy Pace missed the conversion. Kavallieri tried their best to run the ball out of their own half with carries by Alina Nesu and Jus- tine Zammit, but were tied up by the strong Overseas defence and eventually knocked the ball for- ward under pressure. Overseas dropped the ball on their next move. They recovered posses- sion and kicked forward to Kav- allieri's Myra Bonello, who chose the wrong option and booted the ball over her team mates and into the grateful arms of Richard, who sprinted down the left again to score her second. Again, Pace was unsuccessful with the conversion attempt to leave the score at 10-0. From the restart, Kavallieri again tried to breach the Over- seas wall with another strong run from Zammit, but she was forced to spill the ball and hand- ed it on a plate to Overseas, who swung the play left and Claire Casha picked out Sarita Cassar on the charge. She was never go- ing to be stopped as she powered over for the points. Pace missed her third conversion attempt and the half time whistle blew with Overseas 15 points to the good. The second half brought more of the same punishment for Kav- allieri as their high kick-off was taken cleanly by Loraine Cuta- jar. The ball was then slipped sweetly along the line through the hands of three players before Brenda Caruana found Richard lurking on the left touchline. She scorched 50 metres down the wing before cutting inside to bamboozle the chasing Bonello before touching down for her second hat-trick in two weeks. The text book try was converted by Pace and the gap widened to 22 points. Minutes later, a similar move was brought back for an offside penalty when Richard was again on the receiving end of a back- line move. The Kavallieri at- tack from the tap was halted by a couple of big hits in midfield. A second penalty infringement for a high tackle gave Kavallieri another shot at leaving their own half, but the ball was stripped from Francesca Schembri and turned over by Overseas, leav- ing Caruana to cut through the midfield and plant the ball over the try line, chased all the way by Bonello. Pace missed the conver- sion. The final try of the day came from a Kavallieri scrum on their own 22-metre line which went horribly wrong as Schembri al- lowed Pace to steal the ball from her. Pace made the initial break before off loading to Justine Busitti Gaerty, who showed her strength as she broke through two tacklers to score. The kick was missed and the game, which had been played almost com- pletely in Kavallieri's own half, ended 32-0 to Overseas. Star player – Jacqueline Richard PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAKE GHIRLANDO