Stompers RFC use a "Get out of Jail Free" card - beat Overseas RFC 17 - 13

In our second round league game in the local Malta rugby comp we played a tough Overseas RFC side.

The below article from: http://www.maltasport.com/modules/knowledge/item.php?itemid=3584

Stompers were made to work hard to beat Overseas in the MRFU Championship Pool round two match, while Kavallieri eased to victory against Birkirkara Alligators.

Stompers - Overseas 17-13
With a strong cross wind throughout the game and coupled with the fact that Mario Fountain and Matt Mirabelli were not playing, Stompers struggled to get their running game going, until really late in the proceedings.

Morton was playing at fullback, so his skills were missed in the line, and with Mario Fountain serving a suspension, there was no one running from depth into the backline and so the Stomper's play was a stop start affair.

Overseas were out to make amends. They had gone close in the two previous games against the Stompers; drawing one and losing by one point in the other.

The spirit of the Overseas play and their defence, shut the Stompers down from their running game and a lively combination between young Vince Stivala and the eternally young Sean Duffy, had the Overseas backline buzzing.

Richard Newbold, back from injury made some fine breaks and put in one particularly good defensive tackle to take out Malcolm Attard, just short of the line. Eight points, to nil at half time, they had pretty well controlled matters with strong running and tackling.

The usually threatening Stompers backs were well harnessed and even the mercurial Satariano was stifled to the point that his half back partnership with Galea was disjointed.

The Overseas pack won the loose ball battles and it really looked as if they had the match under control.

They took the game out to 13 nil; with a well placed penalty kick by Vince Stivala, and two magnificent tries by Dean Mifsud Bonnici and Brian Dalton.

In the second half, Stompers started their comeback as they pulled back a try by Luke Debattista. They moved into a higher gear and Satariano began to create half breaks with his swerving changes of pace to give runners like Attard the opportunities to test the tacklers again and again. Diamantino went on for Stompers and this gave them some extra authority.

Eight minutes left to the final whistle, Overseas just evaporated under pressure and first Schembri Warren was yellow - carded for dissent, and then a couple of minutes later, their Captain was sin-binned for misconduct.

With seconds to go, it looked like Overseas had secured the win, but the real drama was saved for the last play of the game when Overseas won the ball from the scrum and it came back to their scrum - half who had to just run it into touch to win the game.

However, he decided to play the ball wide, and Stompers won the ball from the ensuing breakdown. Chris Morton went over to score the winning try, followed by a successful conversion.

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