Goninboys, a French Veterans team from Toulouse, were too slick for the Malta Marauders in a game played in Pembroke, on the astroturf of the Melita Football club.
A team that plays in a weekly competition, with up to 18 games in the season, showed the Malta boys, just what fitness and team work can do.
Winning the game 12 to 3, the French used their ability to offload quickly, with superb backing up, they punched holes in the Marauder’s defence. When one poured through, his team mates followed and there was always another player to take the ball on.Some silky passing skills always put their runners into space.
Malta tried hard by driving it in the forwards, but when it got out to the backs, the Gonin Boys defence closed ranks and shut the gate. Daniel Grima was the pick of the Malta team as he tried to carry the ball over the gainline and penetrate the defence, he scored two tries and was busy all afternoon.
Sean Duffy tried to get the Marauders backline going and Greg van Reeven tried to punch his way through carrying the ball, but to no avail.Brian Dalton was good in the tackle and affected a few good turnovers, although he was frustrated when the Referee didn’t penalise the French for hanging on in the tackle a couple times.
The Frenchmen were a delight to host and their entourage of ladies were busy snapping pictures of both teams, prior to the kickoff. A bottle of French wine was presented to each Marauders players, and the Referee, prior to the kickoff and it’s a good thing no one could find a corkscrew, otherwise, tanked up with some liquid courage, we would have given them hell!
AJ had to go off, as he leaked some claret from his head, but he was seen after the game, head bandaged, getting a refill.There was mention of a “Miracle”, of him turning Blood into Wine, but we couldn’t get a Papal clarification on that one.
After Malta had let them score 10 tries, the French began to tire and that’s when Malta came into their own, scoring a couple of quick tries to make the score look respectable. Afterwards, Marauders served the French team some ‘Maltese pastis’ after which everyone retired to Lo Squero for the third half. Several drinking games ensued, in which Marauders came out top. The French awarded ’Man of the Match’ to Sean Duffy, and presented hem with a ceremonial shirt. Marauders gave their ‘Man of the Match’ to the one with the wig.
Afterwards, Marauders captain Phil Gibbs commented ‘We were missing several regulars, but, no excuse, we were outplayed for a good two thirds of the game. We all agree that they were a top-class team of fit players with ‘pedigree’, playing regularly together, and to be honest, in my opinion none of the regular teams would have beaten them, let alone the Marauders! Luckily, we can still win the drinking competitions!
Thanks to Brian for reffing. Where was the medic? He was booked. Luckily they had a couple of doctors on their team, or AJ would have bled to death!
Marauders would like to thank this season’s sponsors – Netrefer, Bettingjobs.com and Endevor Marine for supporting this game.
Leave a Reply