Overseas tick the right boxes

Mediterranean Bank Cup

Overseas got off to a dream start in this election-day cup game when, with just 90 seconds on the clock, Dean Mifsud Bonnici caught a lofted kick on the right touchline and slipped the ball inside to Vince Stivala, who cut though a swathe of Kavallieri players in a lovely run to the left wing.

He floated a pass to Mick George, who ran in unopposed under the posts to open the scoring.

Five minutes later, Kavallieri launched their first attack and had an excellent chance to score after slick passing along the back line opened up space on the right, but the final pass from Rod Attard went behind winger Patrice Debiere five metres from the line.

Then followed a sustained period of pressure on the Overseas line, with Dan Moore and Aled Griffiths exploiting the favourable wind with searching kicks to the corners. With Overseas camped on their own line, they gave away four penalties in quick succession and Kavallieri chose the lineout option each time. Finally, the desperate Overseas defence led to Simon Vassallo being yellow-carded for coming in from the side. A few minutes later, Kavallieri exploited the one-man advantage when Sean Doublesin combined well with Darren Edmunds, who shipped on to David Lewis to score.

With the teams level, Overseas went back on the attack, and Stivala jinked through the defence, but Clayton Cassar knocked the pass on with the line beckoning. However, Kavallieri were soon back in the Overseas half, and launched a series of impressive drives.

Sean Doublesin slipped his tackler and threw a missed pass to Edmunds. His pass found Moore lurking on the wing, giving him a clear run to the line. Kavallieri kept up the pressure, and increased their lead five minutes before half-time, after a quickly-taken penalty by Doublesin saw the ball run loose from the tackle. Edmunds scooped it up and sprinted to the line unchallenged.

The half-time whistle sounded with Kavallieri 17-7 ahead, hoping they had enough of a lead to offset the wind advantage now blowing in Overseas’ favour.

‘Seas started the second half with an early try from straightforward, passing rugby. Stivala played a neat one-two with new centre Osgur McDermott Long, and then sent Jean Claude Thompson on his way to finish a well-worked move. Eight minutes later, they scored again on the opposite wing when Thompson found Mick George, who ran through defenders before releasing prop Dillon Urry to break though the tackle and ground the ball just over the line.

For the next 20 minutes, the game became a scrappy affair played mainly within the 22-metre lines, with both sides trying to gain the advantage, but too often moves were ended by sloppy handling or infringements. Overseas’ lineout was haphazard, and Kavallieri’s back line lost their first-half edge.

Eight minutes from time came a game-changing moment, when Rod Attard made a break up the left wing, but his pass inside went astray. Stivala picked it up and hoofed a big kick downfield. The ball ran to the try line, where Doublesin gathered and, under pressure from the chasers, passed to Moore who knocked on, leaving a grateful Sivala to pick up and score. Overseas lifted their game after this, and five minutes later set up another attack down the left. First George, then Cassar, carried strongly to make ground, then Thomson threaded a nicelyweighted grubber kick through the defensive line and followed it up to touch down, and then convert his own try to take the score out of reach. Kavallieri fought back valiantly, and in the last minute Nicholai Grech set up a ruck 10 metres out. The ball was fed back to Aled Griffiths who weaved his way through to score a consolation try, which left the final score 31-24 in Overseas’ favour.

Man of the match -Vince Stivala