James O'Brien led Malta to a 31-26 victory against Croatia yesterday at the Hibernians Stadium.

It was the opening encounter of this Second Division A in this European Championship.

O'Brien scored 16 points in what was more or less a repeat of the same performance of last year when Malta had won 37-18 against yesterday's opponents.

Malta, who led 19-12 at the interval, opened the scoring through an O'Brien penalty on five minutes. Croatia then failed to convert a penalty and the lead increased after O'Brien converted two other penalties, one of them from an almost impossible angle - a very good start for Malta as they led 9-0 by the 11th minute.

But Croatia hit back in the 18th minute when they scored a try and with the conversion, the score became 9-7 in favour of Malta.

The visitors then started playing better and even took the lead (9-12) after another try when Malta had James Morris being shown a yellow card.

Shortly before Morris re-entered the field of play, O'Brien converted another penalty to level matters (12-12).

In the 26th minute, there was a swift Malta attack which saw Vince Stivala moving upfield along the line and scoring the first try for Malta. O'Brien also converted to give Malta a 19-12 lead at the interval.

Damian Neill's side had an excellent start to the second half as James Morris scored a try to make amends for the 10 minutes he had to stay on the sidelines in the first half. O'Brien converted once again and Malta was now leading 26-12.

Then O'Brien had a chance to increase that lead from another penalty, but this time he missed.

In the 62nd minute, Croatia reduced the margin with a try and a conversion to make the score read 26-19, but four minutes later, Luke Watts set Vince Stivala who raced upfield again to score another try for 31-19 as O'Brien failed to convert.

Three minutes from the end, Croatia scored another try to make the score 31-26, but despite the visitors' attempts, the Maltese held on to start their campaign with a victory.