The Mediterranean Bank has come to the aid of the Malta Rugby Football Union – providing a two-year sponsorship worth €25,000.

This sponsorship will assist in the Union’s development in the international level, but will also support the Cup and the new European 7s competition.

Charles Cini, Head of Corporate Banking at Mediterranean Bank, said yesterday they were delighted to be helping rugby to continue growing. He added: “Rugby’s development in Malta in recent years has been remarkable and we are pleased to be able to sustain this growth.”

Martin Galea, MRFU president, said: “We are thrilled that Mediterranean Bank has made such a commitment – without it the MRFU would not survive. In fact, before this sponsorship agreement was reached, our participation abroad was in jeopardy. The Bank’s intervention has come in the nick of time. We now hope to continue building on what we have achieved so far.”

Galea spoke about last Saturday’s defeat against Latvia. “We are very happy with the first half performance when the team included several locally based players. But we still have to see what happened in the second half – it must have been the level of fitness of our players or a mental breakdown. But I must say we have been really encouraged,” he said.

Galea also said that the 7s men’s team will now be able to compete in the FIRA tournament. “Last year there were two of them in the Ukraine and Cyprus. But we only went to Cyprus as the trip to the Ukraine was very expensive,” he said.

The MRFU president also revealed that the Union is in talks with the government and the MFA over the use of facilities so that its competitions are played regularly.

He added that Pitch 2 at the Marsa still has to be re-seeded and this has complicated things in no small manner. He also said that he had a cordial meeting with MFA president Norman Darmanin Demajo and the association’s CEO to see how the MRFU can make use of some of its fields – especially the Hibs Stadium. But these talks are still in their initial stages.