Malta rugby win opener in Israel
The Malta rugby national team opened their Conference South 1 campaign on the right footing when they battled past Israel 21-14 in Netanya on Saturday.
It was a hard-fought victory for Damian Neill's team who after a shaky start they managed to score two tries to control of the match.
But typically, the Israelis kept fighting and pushed themselves within one try with only 15 minutes to go.
But the Maltese kept their composure to preserve their advantage till the end.
Malta will now look to make it two wins out of two when they face Bosnia at the Hibs Stadium next Saturday.
The Maltese were forced to contain Israel's pressure in the opening stages as the hosts were looking to make the most of their big and powerful pack when pushing forward.
In fact it was the Israelis who drew first blood inside the first 20 minutes when they embarked on a surging driving maul that put the visitors' defence under severe pressure before touching the ball over the goal-line for the first try.
The home side kicked in the conversion to take a 7-0 lead.
But Malta's response soon arrived as they managed to first pull three points back through a penalty conversion from James Kirk, yesterday taking...
Full story