The Malta rugby union national team opened their commitments in the 2025-26 Conference in some style when they outbattled Cyprus 27-8 in Limassol on Saturday.

It was the perfect start for new head coach Phil Pretorius who enjoyed a perfect debut in charge of the national team with a gutsy display which saw the team outplay their opponents by scoring four tries in a hard-fought encounter.

Philip Ioffe scores Malta’s first try against Cyprus.

Although the final scoreline might suggest that Malta had a comfortable afternoon in Limassol but in reality, they had to fight hard to secure the win against a very physical Cypriot side.

Caleb Bonello was the mastermind behind Malta’s victory when scoring two tries, with the others coming from Philip Ioffe and Thomas Holloway. On the other hand, Chris Dudman was precise with his kicking boots as he scored two conversions and a penalty.

Malta will now be back in action on November four when they travel to Andorra.

The match turned out to be a balanced affair, with both teams converting a penalty to leave the score level at three-all.

However, the Maltese struck the first try on 28 minutes when Caleb Bonello powered through in a driving maul to touch the ball beyond the goalline.

Dudman missed the conversion to leave his team 8-3 ahead.

The Maltese struck again three minutes later as the Cypriots failed to deal with Dudman’s long kick and Philip Ioffe stormed through to touch home – 13-3.

Philip Ioffe scores Malta’s second try against Cyprus.

In the second half, Cyprus stepped up the pressure and it looked as though they could get themselves back into the match when they scored their first try of the match through Alexander Pantechis to bridge the gap to 13-8.

But the Maltese refused to lie down and they went on to seal the win with two late tries.

And it was again Bonello who used all his strength to punish the Cypriots when he picked up the ball from a few metres out and touch the ball home. Dudman made no mistake from the conversion to put the visitors 20-8 ahead.

The Cypriots looked distraught and Malta finished off the job when following another driving maul, Thomas Holloway scored the team’s fourth try with Dudman making no mistake from the conversion.

Tom Holloway scores Malta’s fourth try against Cyprus.