Malta 14

Lithuania 10

Malta came back strongly in the second fourty five minutes to beat Lithuania 14-10 in an exciting macth in front of a very good ground at the Hibs Stadium in Kordin.

This was Malta’s second consecutive victory this week, after last Saturday’s impressive 28-0 victory away to Latvia. These two wins leave Malta in a very good position to keep its place in this category.

However the start of the match was not so positive for the Maltese who hit the post from a penalty kick taken by James O’Brien inside the first three minutes.

On 23 minutes Lithuania broke the deadlock when they converted a penalty, and minutes from the first half whistle Lithuania scored a try and conversion to make it 10-0.

In the second hald Damien Neill’s boys went all out to cancel the deficit and after five minutes from the resumption James O’Brien was sharper this time converting a penalty and giving Malta its first three points of the match.

On 55 minutes Malta were awarded another penalty kick by Spanish referee Pedro Montoya, and James O’Brien again made no mistake to make it 6-10.

Malta was now making its best effort and was passing through a great patch obtaining three more points with a drop goal by James O’Brien to make it 9-10.

On the hour Malta took the lead for thr first time when Malta made its only decisive try, again through O’Brien, but missed the conversion, to make it 14-10.

Malta had two other penalty tries to increase its lead but O’Brien missed these two kicks as the strong gusts of wind made it practically impossible to control the flight of the ball.

Lithuania tried to push to save the match in the final minutes but the Maltese defended bravely to obtain a precious and deserved victory.

In the Group standings Sweden lead by 26 points, followed by Lithuania 19, Malta 16, Croatia 11, Latvia 8, when all teams played six matches.