Watch: Malta survive second-half scare to overwhelm Cyprus

The Malta rugby national team managed to withstand Cyprus’ second-half fightback to kickstart their campaign in the Men’s Conference with a 41-14 victory at the Tony Bezzina Stadium.

The match was a game of two halves with the Maltese totally dominating the first half as they scored three tries without reply. But after the break, the Cypriots were a completely revitalised side and threatened to pull themselves back into the match with two unanswered tries.

However, the Maltese fought valiantly and managed to wrap up the points with another try to the delight of the home crowd in Corradino.

Malta were off to a flying start and after five minutes they managed to surge ahead when Owen Vassallo was at the end of a mesmerising driving maul to touch home. Chris Dudman duly converted to put Malta 7-0 ahead.

Malta’s pace was causing all sorts of problems to Cyprus and on 18 minutes  Zarrin Galea burst through the visitors’ defence and sped beyond the goalline for Malta’s second try. Dudman was again precise from the conversion to make it 14-0.

Holloway maintained his shooting skills to convert a penalty as Cyprus were struggling.

The Maltese kept coming and a fine interchange saw Louis Mifsud set up Vassallo for his second try of the match. Rob Holloway kicked in the conversion.

Malta had the chance to strike further ahead early in the second half with a driving maul from a scrum but spilled the ball just before the goalline.

Instead it was Cyprus who struck with a fine attacking move that saw Dominic Georgiu exchange the ball with Alexander Thompson and the former touched home for the visitors’ first try.

That gave Cyprus more courage, and they struck again on 55 minutes when Thompson scored a try, which was duly converted — 24-14.

The visitors’ hopes of a comeback were dealt a blow when Matthew Georgiou was shown a red card.

The Maltese took some time to make their numerical advantage count but they finally struck on 71 minutes when the ball was drifted on the right and Galea was on hand to score.

Then Louis Singleton set up Rory O’Brien who broke through and scored underneath the posts with Holloway completing a comfortable conversion.

Malta managed to score another try at the death when the referee awarded them a penalty try following foul play from the Cypriots, wrapping up a fine day for the home side.