To be honest, Stompers won the Ray Elliot Cup last Saturday with a considerable margin of comfort, a strangely disjointed Overseas’ opposition failing to offer much of a convincing challenge.

Stompers’ backs were their usual quick-witted, inventive selves and, on the day, they enjoyed the added advantage of playing behind a pack which produced the most dominant display of forward power and control they have achieved all season. By the second half, Stompers’ eight were not only totally secure on their own ball but also ruining the majority of Overseas’ set-piece possession.

The first exchanges were, frankly, much ado about nothing (Saturday was William Shakespeare’s birthday).

Stompers started brightly enough but looked as if they would fall away when a sequence of dropped passes and refereeing decisions denied them a score. Overseas, on the other hand, were hesitant, perhaps unnerved by the constant stream of advice from the experts on the touchline … since most of the advice seemed to concentrate on questioning everything the referee did or said, it was hardly positive coaching!!!

For a while it looked as if this might turn out to be one of those games. Then Stompers’ inimitable Nikolic scored one of his trademark charging tries, converted by Fountain, and the players on the field – to their credit – settled down to play rugby. When Mangion added a second, unconverted, try for Stompers to extend the score to 12-0, the possibility of a runaway win seemed on the cards.

But Overseas rallied and began finally to display some of the discipline and clever moves we all know they are capable of … but they did not really offer much of a threat to the Stompers’ line.

That changed early in the second half. Chetcuti, Overseas’ very speedy winger, scored a classic touchline try, outpacing everyone down the left side and into the corner. The conversion was missed. Was an Overseas’ comeback possible?

Stompers’ dismissed that idea emphatically. They won a series of quick penalties on Overseas try line finished off when an Overseas’ defensive aberration (a real comedy of errors) gave Stompers’ powerful prop Mifsud the ball in his hands about two yards from the line.

The lead was soon further extended with a try from Drago, who had been prominent throughout with good close support play. Satariano took over the conversion duties successfully, taking the score 26-5.

Overseas did try to come back and, for the first time in the match, they began to exert some sustained pressure which was rewarded when Duffy scored following neat handling supported, at last, by forward protection. Rickards added the conversion.

This revival was to be short-lived, however. Stompers’ half-backs Matt Mirabelli and Patrick Satariano (is there a better mid-field pairing in Maltese rugby??) were fully on song now and running the show to give Stompers the last word with a try by Attard, converted by Satariano, a final score of 33-12, and – most importantly - the Ray Elliot Cup.

All’s well that ends well for Stompers. Love’s Labour’s Lost for Overseas.

And finally……thanks to a stalwart.

The Ray Elliot Cup Final marked the last competitive game of a real stalwart of Maltese rugby … Phil Gibbs, the Overseas’ forward, who announced on Saturday that he was retiring as a player as that “milestone” birthday approaches.

Phil has been one of the players who are the backbone of rugby – a real competitor on the field, a real friend off it and a paid-up member of that special camaraderie who plied their trade in the dark and secret recesses of the front five of the scrum.

Maltese rugby will miss him as a player. But he is not going to be lost to the game. He now plans to become a referee, no less.

Good luck, Phil!