Birkirkara on the back foot

by Phil Gibbs

Birkirkara 0  Kavallieri 65

Kavallieri opened the scoring on 9 minutes, with a penalty awarded against Freeman for holding on, and kicked by Jo Cutajar. They then exerted sustained pressure on the Birkirkara line before Jonathan Bonnici shuffled across the goal and passed to Matt Brushwood, who touched down under the posts.

From the kick off, Jason Grima caught the ball deep in his own half, and cleverly jinked his way to the Birkirkara 5 metre line, before putting Bonnici in to score. On 30 minutes, Brushwood was yellow - carded for coming in from the side, but Birkirkara failed to use the advantage of the extra man, their kicking all too often failing to find touch. The next try came from a cleverly worked move started by Dan Moore, who was beginning to boss the midfield.

He set up Grima to pass to Tom Aquilina who slipped over to score on the wing. Six minutes later, Jason Pace rumbled over in a maul to score , and just on half-time, Moore chipped a beautifully weighted kick to the right corner for Ed Cassar to gather and touch down.

The second half started with Kavallieri 34 points up, and they lost no time in adding to their score. Moore picked up a loose fly - hacked kick from Tyson, sold an outrageous dummy, and slipped through to score. Nick Horne then grabbed two quick tries from almost identical moves, breaking through weak tackles on both occasions. By this stage, Birkirkara had completely lost their shape and their heads were down, and Kavallieri were scoring at will. Darren Westwood picked up an interception to score down the right wing, and Ed Cassar weaved his way through a maze of players to bag the final try before referee Steve Bussutil mercifully blew the whistle to end this disappointingly one-sided affair.
Man of the match - Dan Moore

In the other senior Cup game, Valletta lost to Stompers 5 - 37

MIA Ladies Xs

Falcons Soar To Victory

Falcons 26 Kavallieri 10

Falcons dominated the first half with their powerful forwards securing the lions share of possession. Beverie Sultana opened the scoring for Falcons after just three minutes, after the Kavallieri defence missed crucial tackles. Falcons second try also came after poor tackling let Rodienne Bugeja through. Daniella Casha converted both tries to give Falcons a 14-0 half - time lead. In the second half, Falcons carried on where they left off, with Vanessa Attard scoring first, followed by a try in the corner from Marion Azzopardi. With Falcons tiring, Kavallieri finally upped their game in the last 10 minutes, working the ball out wide to release their speedy runners. First Pam Psaila and then Brionn Frankish scored fine individual tries with runs out of their own half, but it was too little- too late, and Falcons took the honours 26 - 10.

MRFU Xs League

Gozo Bulls 20 Stompers 41

Gladiators 45 Attard Saracens 5

Marauders 24 Kavallieri 33