Rugby League: Overseas defeats Wolves, Falcons see off Stompers in ‘Scottish weather’

Overseas defeated Wolves by 30 points to nil. Wolves put up a good fight in the first half and sunk their teeth into the Overseas and did not let them run rampant.

Michael Banks (10) on 20 minutes finally kicked a penalty to open the Overseas account, then Sergio Trujillo(8) on a charging run scored out wide.

The game was hampered by a strong wind making passes go wayward. Wolves were competing, but were trying to run the ball from deep, instead of using the wind and kicking for the corners to make it easier on their forwards.

The half time score was only 8 nil to Overseas, playing into the wind, but they now turned to play with the wind at their backs.

Michael Banks made use of it, placing some dinky little kicks into the corners, forcing Wolves to defend some attacking lineouts. A lineout close to the Wolves’ tryline, that went then to a catch and driving maul, Nicky Vella(9) passed to the flying Japanese, Shosei Yamaguchi(28) running down the blindside, for him to score in the corner.

Three more tries to Overseas as they began to play some open Rugby, to Trujillo(No8) again, Cameron Brown(12) dotted down, after Bank’s had glided through the defence, then Zarrin Galea(25) battered his way over, which closed the game out at Overseas 30 points to Wolves 0.

The game was well Refereed by Mauro Miceli, in difficult weather conditions.

Match Commissioner: Robert Portelli.

Men of the Match

Overseas: Sergio Trijillo(No8)

Wolves: Gabriel Seychell(12)

***

Stompers versus Falcons

The second games of the day saw the Falcons win 17 points to 5. This games was played in all sorts of weather conditions, with the wind blowing and rain squalls washing over the pitch. 

Stompers were coming off a loss against Overseas last Saturday and were looking to get back into winning ways. Falcons had defeated Kavallieri on the previous Saturday and were now on a roll.

It was quite a tussle between these two leading teams in the competition, with a lot hanging on this game. It was neck and neck in the first half with both teams trying to break the other down.

Richard Gum (10) was all energy as he tried to get his team on the front foot, but Falcons defended their line with passion.

Stompers’ Mathew Spiteri (1) scored in the corner after a Gum wrap around, then Mark Matchett (14) scored wide out after a break down the left for Falcons.

It was 5 all at half time, with Stompers failing to make use of the wind and were pinned in their half for 15 minutes just prior to half time, as Falcon’s upped their game with Brendan Dalton beginning to run and control the game.

With the wind at their backs, Falcons began to swoop. Also as the ground got saturated, it brought all the fast runners down to an average pace and so it was difficult for the fleet of foot to make any headway and at times were caught from behind by lumbering forwards, with their strong legs in the mud.

Kyle Gauci(12) was kicking deep using the wind, Then from those good field positions, Falcons scored twice in the second half, first to Brendan Dalton(10) after a loop around by Liam Scicluna(4), then Scicluna scored himself, breaking from a ruck and muscling his way over to seal the win. With just one conversion.

Well refereed by Sam Ramage, in Scottish like weather.

Match Commissioner: Rhona Xerri.

Men of the Match

Falcons: Jean Pierre Zarb(8)

Stompers : Nicky Maylor(6)

Match reports by Bryan Corlett