A crushing loss to Mediterranean rivals Italy has Malta licking their wounds but Australian-based coach Aaron McDonald doesn’t believe it’ll end up costing the Knights their place in the International Rugby League’s top 20.
Despite missing their stars from last year’s World Cup, the Azzurri cruised to a 38-12 win on neutral turf in Sydney on Saturday – giving Leo Epifania’s charges their first success against the Maltese in 14 years.
Even the presence of Knights legend Jarrod Sammut was not enough to prevent an Italian onslaught in a fixture boasting Test status – something that was not anticipated when Maltese officials rolled out their end-of-season international programme.
In warm conditions, Italy led 14-0 at the break and were never troubled by the Malta side that included four debutantes including 17-year-old winger Lucas Borg from the Shellharbour Stingrays, an amateur club in a major population growth area, about two hours south of Australia’s biggest city.
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