Malta’s brilliant start to their men’s Rugby Europe Trophy campaign continued at the weekend when they defeated Germany.
There were also positive results on Saturday for Czechia and Sweden in the six-team competition.
Given that Malta were in the third tier Conference event last year and Germany were in the top tier Championship event, many would have seen the latter as favourites when the two sides met in the Trophy.
Germany travelled to Malta looking to build on their opening win over Lithuania, but instead it was Malta who backed up their triumph versus Denmark and made it two wins from two.
At the Tony Bezzina Stadium in Paola on Saturday, Germany stand-off Nikolai Karl Klewinghaus-Hacker was yellow carded early on and, while he was off the pitch, Malta took advantage.
They scored a try via full-back John Connolly and centre Christopher Dudman converted it and then kicked a penalty to make it 10-0 before Klewinghaus-Hacker returned.
Malta had momentum at this stage and by the half hour mark they had raced into a 20-0 lead, the additional points coming via a Dudman try, conversion and penalty.
Germany knew they had to get the next points on the board and they did so when tighthead prop Christophe Edene scored a try with Klewinghaus-Hacker to make it 20-7.
That was the way it stayed at the interval after Dudman missed a penalty attempt.
By the 55th minute, Germany had dragged things back to 20-17 after a penalty by Klewinghaus-Hacker was followed up by a converted try from hooker Mark Fairhurst.
Malta knew they were in a game now, but the hosts managed to score the next points soon after. A try from centre Brendan Dalton converted by Dudman put them 10 points clear heading into the final quarter.
Better was to follow for them as sub George Strickland’s converted try made it 34-17.
In the last 10 minutes Germany threw the kitchen sink at Malta and the hosts also had a player yellow carded.
Germany scored converted tries via second-row Hassan Rayan and winger Aidan Dixon, but Malta somehow held on and a late penalty from Connolly finished things at 37-31.
Malta are second in the standings on eight points with Germany third on six after earning a losing bonus point here.
Unbeaten Czechia are top on nine points after a 52-24 bonus point win away at Denmark.
At the Erritsø Rugby Club in Fredericia, Czechia built up a 33-7 lead at the interval and never looked back.
Winger Lukas Brada scored two tries for Czechia with centre Marek Simak, full-back Martin Cimprich (3), No.8 Ondrej Bejcek and sub Tomas Krampera also crossing. Cimprich converted six of them for 27 points on the day.
Czechia did also suffer from a yellow card on the day, but they were too strong for a Denmark side whose tries came from No.8 Mikkel Andresen, scrum-half Christian Kilsdal, sub Tobias Christensen and full-back Mads Jorgensen. The latter also converted two of the tries.
Denmark are fifth in the standings on zero points just above Lithuania (zero points) who lost 60-22 at home to Sweden.
The Swedes are fourth in the table on six points after this bonus point win at the Siauliai Rugby Academy Stadium in Siauliai.
Sweden’s tries on the road came from loosehead prop Marc Duvel, centre Axel Kalling-Smith, hooker Armir Kozhani (3), sub Robin Fransson, sub Karl Nilsson, full-back Mattias Nilsson, sub Harry O´Reilly and back-row Anthony Rafael.
During an eventful match in which Sweden had a man sent off, scrum-half Jack Tatu Robertsson kicked four conversions and Nilsson kicked one.
Lithuania had one player yellow carded in the game and their tries in defeat came from tighthead prop Nojus Skinulis, back-row Laurynas Marcinkus and scrum-half Alanas Aleksanian with stand-off Dovydas Taujanskas kicking seven points.
This coming weekend, Germany are taking on Denmark, Sweden are on their travels to Malta and Czechia are playing Lithuania.
Meanwhile, Andorra and Norway secured comfortable wins in the women’s Rugby Europe Conference on Saturday.
Andorra defeated Romania 46-5 at home while Norway won 67-0 away in Bulgaria.
The next scheduled match in the event is Czechia versus Austria on November 21.
