The UM Wolves RFC men’s team hit the ground running for 2026 as they sailed past Stompers RFC with a comfortable 82 to 7 scoreline.
There were three changes to the team which faced Falcons RFC in the team’s last match in mid-December as Kurt Sciberras, Luke Maistre, and Pavel Dalli were named in the Starting 15. For Dalli, it was his first start for the club.
Club veteran Daniel Ghirlando meanwhile made his return to competitive action after a lengthy injury lay-off as he was named as a substitute, while youth academy product Nathaniel Azzopardi was also named in the match squad for the first time.
The boys were hoping to hit the ground running having had a stop-start season thus far with just two league games played – and they did just that.
Cody Schmidt – playing in the outside centre role rather than his usual position of scrum-half – scored a hat-trick within the first 20 minutes, while Declan de la Mare scored his first try of the day after a scintillating run and offload by Pavel Dalli on the wing from deep.
Further tries came from towering Italian centre Cristian Piccoli and his Italian colleague scrum-half Tommaso Marigliano. Three conversions from Piccoli meant that the boys in green entered the half time break 36-0 up.
It was more of the same in the second half: Cody Schmidt scored his fourth personal try before having to come off for a blood injury, followed by another try by Declan de la Mare, two from George Strickland, and one from Karol Spiteri who came off the bench.
Axel Jeffers added two tries of his own to continue building his seasonal tally, but the best try of the day was left to the end.
Cristian Piccoli intercepted the ball on the Wolves 10m line after Stompers attempted to quick-tap a penalty, and scampered up the pitch, beating two defenders and drifting left towards the corner flag. He then let rip an outrageous reverse pass some 30 metres to Declan de la Mare, who went over to seal his hat-trick.
Stompers scored a converted consolation try at the end of the match, but the final score ended at 82-7 to the boys in green.
They continue their season against Kavallieri RFC on Saturday 31 January at 13:30.
STARTING 15: Kurt Sciberras, Jonathan Pace, Sven Camilleri, Agustin Rabini, Luke Maistre, Gareth Blundell, George Strickland, Kurt Aquilina, Tommaso Marigliano, Gabriel Seychell, Pavel Dalli, Cristian Piccoli, Cody Schmidt, Axel Jeffers, Declan de la Mare
SUBS USED: Karol Spiteri, Janek Dalli, Leonard Schembri, Nick Xuereb, Crispin Gauci Peresso, Daniel Ghirlando, Ryder Croft
SUBS UNUSED: Nathaniel Azzopardi
