sport

A major win in a minor sport

Malta’s national rugby team are still on a high following their impressive victory recently against Monaco in the European Cup qualifiers. The team’s captain and second row, Chris Diamantino, speaks to MIRIAM DUNN about Malta’s success and where they go next

Your 8-0 win against Monaco obviously delighted you, the rest of the team and Malta’s rugby fans. What do you believe to be the reasons for your success?

We were really pleased with our victory over Monaco, mainly because it meant that all the hard training we had done before the match paid off.

Prior to this game, we had participated in five World Cup qualifiers and, although we didn’t win a game, we competed very well.

We knew we were up to the competitive level and that our tactical knowledge was there, but we were at a disadvantage with our fitness.

We were tiring, and in rugby, once you’re tired, it’s difficult to play the game well. All you can think about is getting your breath back; you can’t concentrate on the calls or the set pieces.

So after the world cup qualifiers, the coach, Ben Bennett, decided we should focus on getting fit. We spent the summer doing a lot of hard work and training, such as sprinting and upper body work-outs.

There is no doubt that being fitter helps your game; it enables you to concentrate on helping your team mates.

And rugby is a very team-orientated sport. If your team mates are not there to support you when you’re in trouble and pass on the ball when needed, then you’ll lose possession.

The committee also did some resourcing and found some players that were eligible to play for Malta, such as foreigners with Maltese parents. They came down for the game and joined the rest of who had been working in the summer training camp.

Did you expect to beat Monaco?

It was a strange experience, because although Monaco had beaten us the time before, we expected to run rings around them with our new team and training.

But then we discovered that they had also changed their team – there were only four players from the original line-up - and had drafted in a number of players from France.

The result of this was that they definitely came out with a better team and gave us quite a shock with their level of rugby.

But then, all credit goes to our defence, which amazed me. Our backline and defence were superb; there was a point when one of the Monaco players had a clear run and the whole crowd thought he was going to get through. Our full-back Charlie Vol Moll made an amazing tackle, which really saved the day.

Now we need to concentrate on our forwards who, admittedly, need to do some more work together. They only had one week to gel together and this made things difficult for them since communication between the forwards is vital. They need to be able to work out what each of them is thinking, or pre-determine what each of them would do under pressure.

Once you’re familiar with that, it becomes much easier to work together.

How can you tackle the problem of players not being able to train together?

It’s difficult, admittedly, when some people live abroad.

We discussed the problem and we are looking at the idea of setting up some training camps, either in the UK or here, so we can train together before our next match which is at home to Bulgaria in March.

There have been observations that interest in rugby is growing. Are you pleased with the level of support you are receiving?

I’m very happy with the growing attendance rates at the matches.

The first time we played Monaco I was told that although there were only about 70 people in the stands at kick-off, this number had mushroomed to about 500 later in the game. Then, when we played Monaco last time, it was estimated that the crowd was more than double, which would put the attendance figure in the region of 1000.

There were even people with drum kits and national flags – the full regalia – which was really encouraging. In fact, our sponsors commented to me that there were more people than you see at a football match much of the time.

The good attendance even led to a government decision to give us the stadium for our matches, which is great news, both for the team and the spectators. We have now been told that we will be able to play all our international and European games at the stadium.

Interest is definitely growing, which should also help us with sponsors.

It was hard for us to generate interest among potential sponsors initially since we were starting out from nothing, with just three teams, and had no track record to show for ourselves.

Barclays were great in this respect. They came in without a clue of what to expect, and put their faith in what they felt we could achieve.

Is it difficult to generate interest in rugby among the younger generation?

The interest is definitely there, and we’re doing our best to encourage development in this respect. The problem is a lack of coaching manpower and facilities. We only have one coach and he has to concentrate on the national team.

But we have training sessions for youngsters and novices on Mondays and this is now also extending to Saturdays.

So what’s on the horizon for the Malta side?

We’re in a certain category for the European Cup qualifiers, so our aim is to go up to the next level.

There are 93 countries which are IRB members and you are classed on the performance and development of rugby in your country. At present we stand at 59 out of 93, which isn’t at all bad, although this could have gone up since our win. If we do well in the qualifiers and have good matches against some of the countries in our category, such as Norway and Bulgaria, we could move up and get to play other national sides which would be great.

It is vital we play other teams to stretch ourselves, especially since we are only five teams in the league, and we are doing this where possible. For example, on Wednesday we have the team from Exeter University coming over to play us and we play against teams from the ships that visit when they are in.

In the meantime, we are still giving a lot of importance to fitness and becoming more competitive.

Our coach has allocated training days to fixed pieces and technicalities of the game, so we are now undertaking our own fitness regimes, which involve a quota of running and gym work-outs.