Saturday 13 April 2025 will go down in the UM Wolves RFC history books, after the club’s men’s team completed an historic double with victory over Stompers RFC in the MRFU Cup Final.
It was a blockbuster of a match with a blockbuster of an attendance, with an estimated 400 spectators lining the Marsa touchline on a fine day for some rugby.
It was a quick start with great intent from the Wolves as a breakthrough down the right wing was crafted within a minute of kickoff, but just as it seemed that Virain Hariramani was bearing down on the touchline, he was stopped by a frantically chasing defender.
Wolves did come away with a penalty from the action, with the ever-reliable Connor Muir kicking it through the posts and making the score 3-0.
Two more penalties followed before 15 minutes had passed on the clock: first Stompers equalised with their penalty, before Muir hit another one through to make the score 6-3.
The try deadlock was broken three minutes later, as a turnover was followed up with a deft kick by Cody Schmidt behind the Stompers line. The bounce was favourable, allowing Simon Borg to put pressure and reclaim possession. Gabriel Seychell was first to the ruck and he passed out to Axel Jeffers who ran 40 metres in open space to score his 17th try of the season, making the score 11-3.
It was a cagey rest of the first half, with the score remaining as it was.
It was Stompers who then took initiative in the second half, scoring an unconverted try to put the score back at 11-8.
With 20 minutes to go, Muir slotted a penalty from 40 metres to give Wolves some breathing space, and the boys were now starting to find more space and momentum as Stompers started to tire.
Muir stepped into contact, committing a defender and thereby creating a gap for an oncoming Hariramani – who received the offload and bundled a pass to Philippe Ioffe. Ioffe beat off one defender and ploughed through two more with the help of his teammates to get the ball down beyond the try line.
Muir slotted the conversion from the right touchline and made the score 21-8.
Momentum then stayed with the boys in green: Keegan Weintraud capped off a man of the match performance with a try of his own as he made it through two defenders to score. No conversion meant the score stood at 26-8 going into the final minutes.
That’s how the score remained until Schmidt punted the ball out into the touch to be greeted by the referee’s final whistle and a host of flares and celebrations from the Wolves faithful on the touchline.
It was an historic afternoon as the boys were then presented with both the MRFU Cup and the MRFU League title by officials from the MRFU.
Starting 15: Michael Galea, Jonathan Pace, Sven Camilleri, Kurt Aquilina, Mikel Dominguez Agirre, Gareth Blundell, George Strickland, Keegan Weintraud, Cody Schmidt, Gabriel Seychell (C), Virain Hariramani, Simon Borg, Connor Muir, Philippe Ioffe, Axel Jeffers
Subs used: Agustin Rabini, Luke Maistre, Kurt Sciberras, Nick Xuereb, Leonard Schembri, Isaac Scerri, Benjamin Johnston, Daniel Ghirlando
