The UM Wolves Women’s team kicked the New Year off with an important victory over rivals Stompers, as league rugby returned to the Marsa pitches after the Christmas break.
It wasn’t an easy win, with a second half fight-back needed to secure the points.
Stompers went a try up right ahead from the kick-off and were controlling the early stages of the match, scoring a second try with three and a half minutes gone. Both tries were converted, making it 14-0 for the girls in red.
UM Wolves needed to find a response, and it came towards the end of the first half with captain Raisa Farrugia taking advantage of a loose ball after a period of broken play to run the ball in from 60 metres out.
Rebekka Bartolo’s conversion came back out off the post, meaning that the half time score stood at 14-5 to Stompers.
A fight back was required to turn the match around, and the Wolves girls emerged rejuvenated from the half time break.
Rebekka Bartolo’s kickoff was immediately recovered, and several passes and offloads across the width of the pitch eventually brought to ball to Amber Dalli who beat her defender and scored between the posts. The conversion from Bartolo was good, making the score 14-12 with plenty of time still to go.
The kick-off was again good, with Wolves winning the ball back from a knock-on. The ensuing scrum saw the ball come out to Bartolo, pass through the hands to Emma Borg, then to Dalli, and back to Borg who successfully put Raisa Farrugia into space.
She was brought down by a last ditch tackle, but offloaded from the floor to the supporting Borg, who took the ball over to score what was her first ever Wolves try. No conversion meant that the score was now 17-14 to Wolves.
A strong defensive set saw crunching tackles from Bartolo, Dalli and Martina Zammit before Diane Micallef pounced onto a loose ball to regain possession. Annah Mallia took it into contact, and Dalli picked the ball off the base to run in and score her second try of the day and her team’s fourth.
The score was now 22-14 to Wolves with only a few minutes left. Charlotte Sultana Evans was on for her first appearance this season to offer some experience in the defensive line.
There were big tackles in fact from Borg, Dalli, Bartolo and Sultana Evans before Wolves infringed with a high tackle. Stompers called a scrum and played through to score their third try of the match – but it was not enough to turn the result around.
The full time whistle came with the final score being 22-19 to Wolves – an all-important win for our ladies as they aim to get their season back on track in 2025!
Match Squad: Raisa Farrugia (C), Amber Dalli, Rebekka Bartolo, Emma Borg, Martina Zammit, Annah Mallia, Yana Scicluna, Diane Micallef, Anthea Borg, Charlotte Sultana Evans