A depleted Wolves side fell to a narrow, and disappointing defeat to Stompers on a late Saturday afternoon kick-off as the club’s league action neared its conclusion.
It was a delayed start as the Stompers kit man arrived late for kick-off, but it did not deter the Wolves as they got into gear immediately.
Two penalties allowed Wolves to move upfield quickly, and Hamish Boult did as he’s done this season and crashed over the gainline off the ensuing lineup. Quick hands out wide allowed Daniel Ghirlando to crash over and score on the right wing. Cian Mulkern was not deterred by the awkward angle and slotted the conversion to make the score 7-0 in Wolves’ favour after just three minutes.
It was clearly set to be a to-and-fro game: Gaston Fricker at scrum half was keeping pressure on the Stompers back three with his box kicks, but Stompers were winning penalties at scrum time and capitalising on ground they could make up.
It was at scrum-time in fact that Stompers made their first mark of the match, as after two scrums from penalties – one of which was stopped from becoming a try by a last-ditch tackle from Nick Xuereb – they walked the ball over. No conversion meant the score now stood at 7-5, still in Wolves’ favour.
Wolves tried to control the match with box kicking and some kick attempts behind the Stompers line, but lacked patience and failed to build any phases which would suck in the Stompers’ defensive line, ultimately leading to mistakes.
It would be Stompers – again courtesy of their scrum – who made the next mark on the scoreboard, with a pick and go off the back of a scrum leading to their second try of the match, and them taking a 10-7 lead.
But Wolves bounced back almost immediately. Carries from Hamish Boult, Kurt Sciberras, Gareth Blundell, and Agustin Rabini won the advantage for a free play, and with the ball out wide on the left wing and the defence sucked in Gabriel Seychell was able to shift the ball wide through the hands to Philippe Ioffe who could practically walk in under the posts to score.
Mulkern’s conversion unfortunately rattled the post and bounced out, meaning that the score stood at 12-10 to Wolves going into half-time.
The score remained as such for the bulk of the first half: neither side doing enough to battle past their adversary and both sides not able to get any semblance of structured play going. Wolves were being punished at scrum-time, with Stompers using every opportunity to call one in order to win a penalty and wear the boys in green out.
Seychell had a strong break up the field at one point, but was turned over just as it appeared to become promising. Fatigue started to show, as prop Michael Galea, Mulkern and Ioffe all came off with knocks at different points in the half.
A light bench meant that it was George Strickland, returning from injury, debutant Loris Cornuault and club president Albert Galea coming off the bench to offer cover.
With ten minutes to go it was Stompers who finally broke the deadlock. A powerful carry raised questions of a knock-on, but play on was waved and Stompers went over to score out wide. No conversion meant that the score stood at 15-12 to Stompers, with the game still in the balance.
But Wolves could find no platform in the final ten minutes of the match, and emerged from the pitch frustrated as the referee blew his final whistle, leaving the boys in green to go home with just a losing bonus point.
STARTING 15:
Michael Galea, Jonathan Pace, Kurt Sciberras, Agustin Rabini, Kurt Aquilina, Gareth Blundell, Nick Xuereb, Hamish Boult, Gaston Fricker, Gabriel Seychell, Tyrese Hayman, Virain Hariramani, Philippe Ioffe, Daniel Ghirlando, Cian Mulkern.
SUBS USED:
George Strickland, Albert Galea, Loris Cornuault, Leonard Schembri
SUBS NOT USED:
Braden Refalo, Crispin Gauci Peresso
