Backed by an enthusiastic crowd at the Hibernians Stadium yesterday afternoon, Malta swept past Croatia 37-20 to land an impressive and most important win.

The victory means that the Malta team is now very close to secure their European Division 2A status.

When Malta went ahead early through a James Kirk try, there was no looking back for Damien Neill’s side. It was a good 7-0 lead as James O’Brien converted the try.

Croatia appeared stunned and Malta scored another try through Dominic Busuttil – again converted by O’Brien – for a healthy 14-0 lead.

The visitors reacted and managed to reduce the gap to six points – 14-8 – before the interval.

Malta started the second half on a positive note as Daniel Aspee scored a third try. It was 19-8 for Malta and it remained like that as O’Brien contrived to miss the conversion.

Malta made a definitely strong step towards victory some 10 minutes from the end. A Vince Stivala try and the eventual conversion by O’Brien gave Malta a 26-8 lead.

When Busuttil was shown the yellow card, the Croatians scored a try which was not converted to keep Malta ahead 26-13.

Two minutes from time, O’Brien converted another penalty to add another three important points.

But it was not over yet as Malta scored a fifth try before the end through Kirk.

And before the end, first Croatia had another try to move on to a 34-20 score and then O’Brien converted another penalty to make the final scoreline read 37-20 for Malta.