The UM Wolves RFC Men’s Team was once again on form on Saturday, as it dispatched Overseas with a scoreline of 72 points to 5 to continue its unbeaten run this season.
It took almost eight minutes for the scoreline to be opened, but after sustained pressure and set piece dominance from the boys in green it was Wolves who broke the deadlock on a bitterly windy afternoon down at Marsa.
Clean lineout ball allowed the forwards to get some go forward taking the ball out wide. Cody Schmidt ran with the ball from the base of the ruck before shooting a one-handed offload out to Axel Jeffers on the wing, who went in for the score.
Connor Muir’s conversion attempt was foiled by the trademark Marsa winter winds, which made it difficult to find the target.
It was off more sleek play on the 15th minute that the second try. Mikel Dominguez Agirre rose highest to steal an Overseas lineout – one of 7 lineout steals in the match – deep in their 22m. Agustin Rabini, whose long limbs were a difficult target for defenders throughout the match, rampaged forward, offering front-foot ball for the backs.
Schmidt shipped it wide to Gabriel Seychell, who made a half break through the Overseas defence before offloading to Virain Hariramani who had the simplest of passes to Philippe Ioffe, allowing him to score unopposed.
Muir’s conversion was good this time, making it 12-0.
The lineout was working well, and it allowed the backs to get the ball moving, with Ioffe getting his second try of the day courtesy of his trademark goose step allowing him to run into clear real estate to score.
The fourth try came in the 24th minute, with clean lineout ball again providing the platform for a sweeping backs move that ended with Simon Borg running through the last Overseas defender to score the third try of the match.
Borg was at the centre of the fifth try just a couple of minutes later: he picked up a loose ball inside the Wolves 22m, beat one defender, dummied another, shrugged off a tackle, ran to the halfway line, stepped one more, and offloaded from between two tackles to Axel Jeffers who had the simple task of taking the ball home and dotting it down for the bonus point.
Muir converted one of the three for a score of 29-0.
It was much of the same as the half came to a close: clean lineout ball on the halfway line allowed Wolves to get go forward, culminating in a Muir half break out wide, and then the ball being passed into the cradle of the ambling prop Sven Camilleri, who powered over the last man to score.
It was Sven’s first try in green, with the national team prop having joined the club over the summer.
A Muir conversion meant that the score was 36-0 going into half time.
It was a sharp start to the second half, with Wolves grabbing two tries in almost as many minutes. The first came courtesy of Axel Jeffers who was put into space for his hat-trick by Hariramani as the forward pack turned over a scrum, while the second came courtesy of another turned over scrum with Keegan Weintraud looping the ball over the referee to Hariramani, who ran a good 65 metres to score under the posts.
Both were converted, putting the score at 50-0.
The way the match was going allowed for substitutions to be made, with the substitutes bench being emptied early on in the second half.
It was one of those substitutes who grabbed the next time. Isaac Scerri is one of those long-time players for Wolves who has now played in every of the club’s competitive seasons so far, and it was he who grabbed his first ever Wolves try after getting on the end of a Weintraud offload from the base of a scrum.
Jeffers was put through for his fourth try of the day by some slick hands from Seychell to substitute Francesco Pace Parascandalo to Muir, who provided the final pass, and Cody Schmidt pounced on a loose ball some minutes later to take the score even further out of reach.
Overseas did get a try back with around 8 minutes left still on the clock, but it was Muir who would have the final say on the match has crashed through several defenders to score a try to complement his total of six conversions during the day.
At the full-time whistle, the final score stood at 72-5 – another important win that leaves the men’s team on the precipice of history.
Starting 15: Michael Galea, Jonathan Pace, Sven Camilleri, Agustin Rabini , Mikel Dominguez Agirre, Gareth Blundell, George Strickland, Keegan Weintraud, Cody Schmidt, Gabriel Seychell, Simon Borg, Virain Hariramani, Philippe Ioffe, Axel Jeffers, Connor Muir
Subs Used: Kurt Sciberras, Nick Xuereb, Nigel Borg, Luke Maistre, Isaac Scerri, Daniel Ghirlando, Francesco Pace Parascandalo, Ryder Croft
