Malta outmuscle Cyprus in Rugby Europe Conference
The Malta rugby national team bagged their second win in the Rugby Europe Conference Championship when they eased past Cyprus 24-14 in Nicosia yesterday.
This was the second meeting between the two countries in this competition this season with the Maltese coming out on top in the corresponding firstround meeting after clinching a thrilling 22-17 win in November last year.
However, things took a different twist yesterday as Keith Hopkins’ team were in control right from the outset.
In fact, they took 18 minutes to score the first try of the match when Joseph Greaves used all his power to force his way through the Cypriot defence and touch the ball beyond the goalline.
Robert Dudman made no mistake from the conversion to hand the Maltese a 7-0 lead.
The Cypriots fought back and they managed to restore parity by the end of the first half through a converted try by their wide man Kai Phillips.
That setback failed to derail the Maltese who quickly restored their advantage early in the second half.
In fact, they set on an impressive driving maul that completely tore apart the Cypriot defence with Harry Collins touching the ball home. Dudman completed formalities from the conversion to hand Malta a 14-7 lead.
The home side tried to fight bak again but it was Malta who struck again when Owen Vassallo used all his power to set up Thomas Holloway who scored the team’s third try which was again converted by Dudman.
The Malta kicker continued to add more points when converting a penalty to streth the team’s lead to 24-7.
The Cypriots managed to grab a second try just before the final whistle but that little mattered as Malta were long home and dry.