The Malta Knights have registered a comprehensive performance and a record home victory as they ran in 13 tries this afternoon at Marsa for a 78-0 defeat of Bulgaria.
A Jarrod Sammut masterclass by the Barrow Raiders halfback with a hat-trick of tries and 13 from 13 conversions for a personal haul of 38 points was magic to the eyes of local supporters before he flies out tomorrow morning to play for the Raiders on Sunday afternoon against York City Knights.
Malta head coach Phil Humphrey couldn’t hide his satisfaction, commenting, ‘We’re immensely proud of everyone involved over the Medieval Shield campaign whose hard work has gone into these fantastic results last week in Montenegro and today here at Marsa’.
‘Volunteers, players and fantastic supporters all came together to enable us to get this result. We hope this now sets a foundation for us to continue building on, and that we continue improving our sport on behalf of Malta’.
In sweltering 30-degree-plus temperatures, the Malta team didn’t seem phased, with a a sterling performance all round, but especially holding their heads high were the 13 local players from the MRL Championship that shone in the Malta squad.
Mark Robertson also collected a hat-trick in front of family that flew in from Scotland, football-come-rugby player and winger Jean Scholey burned the side-lines and crossed for two four-pointers.
A regular on the scoreboard, lock Kaine Dimech made sure today was no different, while young local talents Kyle Gauci crossed and replacement fullback Brendan Dalton grabbed a double.
Malta dual rugby international Liam Scicluna crossed in the final minutes to complete a 13-try rout of the Bulgarian Wolves.
Malta vice-captain Jean-Pierre Zarb played limited minutes due to injury, but the two sides came off the field with relatively no injuries.
Malta team manager Anthony Micallef praised the local fans, ‘While credit goes to the opposition for never giving up out there, that was a day out well worth it for all the fans that turned out, watching a superb demonstration by seventeen Knights in a herculean effort to keep their opposition to zero’.
