Spirited Kavallieri lose second match in a row

Overseas 20
Kavallieri 12

Kavallieri's woes continued on Sunday as they lost for the second week in succession, this time to a revitalised Overseas at Marsa.

It was often a case of Kavallieri's speed and enthusiasm against the wiser old heads of Overseas which provided an exciting match despite both teams being hampered by injury to key players.

Greg Van Reeven, of Overseas, played through the pain barrier though as Kavallieri dominated the line-out for most of the game and enjoyed such a glut of possession that they should have scored more points.

The first spectacular moment of the game was a stunning crash tackle by Grant Wilson who stopped Chris Vassallo in his tracks, a rare occurrence.

Overseas were soon on the attack through Van Reeven and Langford but the Kavallieri defence was resolute. Carey broke out with a great run which forced Overseas to defend desperately. Vassallo made a winding break down the middle and Daniel Grima was unlucky to drop the ball as he was touching down.

A big factor in this match was the accurate tactical kicking and tackling of Sean Duffy. He made another telling kick into the corner which was touched down by Chris Jones to open the scoring for Overseas. Newbould failed to convert and missed another penalty for a ruck offence.

Vassallo, at last, forced his way through from the centre to bring Kavallieri back into the match with a good try, which he failed to convert. Rickards then missed another penalty for Overseas. H.T. - 5-5.

Kavallieri started the second half in determined mood but Overseas responded with a cross field handling move which ended with a chip behind the Kavallieri try line. Carey then pulled off a clever bluff touch down to completely fool Jones into stopping, springing up and running away a good 30 metres to start a fine handling movement which took the ball well into the opposition half before breaking down on solid tackling.

After several minutes of constant Kavallieri pressure Overseas finally cleared their line when a fine Duffy kick took them back to press in turn.

A drive over was not allowed but Overseas won the ball from the scrum and a forward drive was transferred to Newbould who released Van Reeven with a perfect pass to touch down through two tacklers.

At this point the Bonavia brothers were brought on by Kavallieri to beef up their effort. Suddenly, they clicked into a choral move which co-ordinated rucks with passing, sweeping from right to left and back again.

Vassallo broke through three tackles to score out on the right. He then converted the try and Kavallieri were in the lead for the first time - 12-10.

However, with only a few minutes to go, two soft penalties foiled Kavallieri. Newbould saw that Overseas regain the lead - 13-12.

Kavallieri surged down admirably towards Overseas' try line. But, in their desperation to score, a pass was floated high and the hungry Van Reeven pounced to intercept. He was illegally pulled down from behind and a penalty try was awarded, easily converted by Newbould to give Overseas the match.

A promising aspect of all the matches so far has been the resolute defence and tackling of the teams... the determination not to be beaten is a vital factor in Maltese rugby.