Next week, the Malta Rugby Football Union is proud to host the Fira-Aer, European Clubs Championships 2006 - 1st Round Group South.
In this group the Malta A development side will cross swords with Croatia Club Champions Nada Split RFC, Greek Club Champions Athens RFC and Slovenian side RFC Bezigrad Olimpya.
The matches will be held at Marsa Rugby Football pitch between 13 and 15 October.
There will be two semi-finals on Friday between Malta ‘A’ and RFC Bezigrad Olimpya at 1pm and Nada Split Vs Athens RFC at 3pm, while on Sunday there will be a third and fourth place play-off at 1pm and the final between the winners of the previous day will kick off at 3pm, followed by an official presentation at Ryan’s Irish Pub in St Julians.
The Malta ‘A’ side coached by Damian Neill, assisted by Steve Busuttil and Team Manager Neil Galea, have made inroads during the last two seasons by winning two away test matches against Messina RFC and Accademia Roma RFC, while they managed to finish runners up in the May International clubs tournament organised by the MRFU last May. Next February Italian side Asti Rugby will be touring Malta after the very positive results obtained in Italy over the past season.
Athens RFC won the Hellenic league last year with an impressive 10 wins and no losses.
The team managed by Adrian McMahon spent long hours training and motivating his players to become the best side in Greece.
Croatian league champions Nada RFC have a wealth of players from the national team that lost to Malta in April during the World Cup 2007 Qualifiers, where Malta won 26 – 15, they are sure to be one of the favourites to win this event.
The only other previous encounter with a Slovenian side was in the World Cup Qualifiers of 2003 where an infant Malta national team was beaten 26 – 8 in Slovenia.
The winners of this group will gain entry to the second round of the European clubs championships which includes various European Regions.
This is the first event of season 2006/7 organised by the Malta Rugby Football Union and is a very important step towards the development of local players. Matches such as these give the experience required by players to make the jump from ‘Club’ rugby to ‘Test’ rugby. Most of these players are fighting for a place in the next internationals that are to take place on 28 October against Latvia in Riga and 4 November against Croatia in Malta.
Admission to the Euro Clubs Championship is free and the general public is invited to attend this interesting European Clubs Championships that is the first official Fira-Aer European fixture to be held in Malta.
NICK GATT
Rugby Union PRO