[Rugby League] Not One But Two World Cups for Maltese Rugby

It promises to be quite a week for Maltese rugby. Next Saturday, the national team takes on Germany looking to edge ever closer to the Rugby Union World Cup to be held in France in two years’ time. The hope is that they keep on building on the positive results registered over the past two years.

They could do worse then emulate the Malta Knights team that last week beat England Lionhearts 36-6 in the first international rugby league game to be played in Malta.

Few people outside the rugby fraternity realise that there are two codes of the game with each one being distinctly different from the other. With rugby union being favoured by the British forces, its’ popularity rapidly spread round the world whilst rugby league’s core remained England and the southern hemisphere countries.

It was here, specifically Australia, that the Malta Knights team was born. Built around players of Maltese origin, a series of games were held in Sydney before last week’s debut in Malta.

The man chosen to guide Malta for this historic game was Joe Grima. “It was quite a success,” he enthused after the game. “We were very happy with the crowd that turned up and it was quite an honour to be involved.”

The decision to field Maltese player Robert Bonavia was equally successful even if it was quite a risk as he had never played a game of rugby league in his life. Yet, as Grima explained, he had no doubt that the player would come through.

“Robert came for one of our training camps and it was immediately clear that he had both the skill and the know how to play for us. We asked his club to see if they would grant us permission to use him and once they accepted we opted to field him. And I have to say that eh played very well.” It was a move that also paid dividends off the pitch as it helped galvanise the crowd behind the Knights.

A crowd that was largely made up of local rugby union players which would indicate that there is plenty of interest in rugby league. Grima certainly seems to think so. “People are excited by the game and a lot of players showed an interest. What we need to do is structure a programme of rugby league games in Malta. We don’t want to compete with rugby union so perhaps there could be a competition outside the union season.”

Setting up such a competition would also help the Malta Knights in reaching one f the main goals: getting Malta to the 2008 World Cup to be played in Sydney.

“We want to get Malta to the World Cup. However to do we want to get a mix of local players along with Maltese players who live abroad.”

“Naturally, a lot depends on the qualifying groups and we’re not going to compete with the likes of England or Australia. Yet we believe that we stand a genuine chance of qualifying.”Should rugby union fulfil their own expectations and unless Grima’s faith in rugby league’s chances is misplaced, 2007 and 2008 could see Malta take part in two Rugby World Cups within twelve months of each other. Not that would be quite a year.

This article was publised in The Times of Malta in October 2005.