Cyprus 70-10 Finland

Two weeks after the impressive performance against Bulgaria, Cyprus again met to prepare for their game against bottom of the table, Finland. The squad were confident going into the match, enhanced by the return of Jonathan Pettemerides, who had not played for the Moufflons for over 3 years, that coupled with the addition of the young promising second row Billy Cosma; the pack had all the credentials to compliment the exciting Cypriot back line.

However, despite scoring 2 early penalties and some strong powerful running, it was not until the 28th minute when Cyprus eventually went over the Finnish try line, with Andrew Binikos breaking and feeding Jonathan Pettemerides to bring the scoreline to 11-0.

Finally starting to find their rhythm, with strong running by Reno Ioannides, a quick feed from the break down to Chris Thoma, who put in an outstanding overhead pass to Marcus Holden for him to run in for the second try of the game. It was not to be the final action of the half when the strong running of George Agathocleous finally paid off when he bounced off any potential defenders and scored under the posts, unconverted this brought the half time score to 23-0. A reasonable performance but littered with the frustration of silly mistakes and a high penalty count, which were obviously discussed at half time in an attempt improve the overall performance of the team.

Clearly, the team talk fell on deaf ears as Cyprus conceded a goal and penalty in the first 10 minutes of the seconf half to bring the scoreline to 23-10. It took a futher 10 minutes for the Moufflons to start to fire again, with Reno Ioannides slicing through the visiting defence to score a simple try under the posts; this was to be the trigger for a steady stream of tries being scored by a rampant Home side.

In fact, it was a mirror image try by George Agathocleous 4 minutes later that gave the backs the confidence to really start to run with the ball. Two minutes later, a great move from deep in the Cypriot half led to Reno Ioannides going over for his second try in 6 minutes. Next up, Marcus Holden went over again following a cheeky chip from Winger Andreas Zacharia, gathered and fed to Dan Thrasivoulou who passed to ball overhead to Holden; another great effort taking the score line to 51-10.

It was not long before Holden got his hat-trick following some rampaging running by George Agathocleous tearing through the defence. The next try was a piece of individual brilliance by Andrew Binikos taking a quick tap and weaving his way through the Finnish defence to take the scoreline to an impressive 63-10. Deep into injury time, it was Man of the Match George Agathocleous who had the final word, to go over for the 10th and final try of the game, leaving a new record score line of 70-10.

Despite the frustrations of indiscipline to concede another high penalty count, this was an exceptional performance, whilst the backs scored the tries, it was the hard work of the forward pack to give them the time and space and to show what they are really capable of. Another step closer with a bonus point win to place us firmly at the top of the league table.

Man of the Match - George Agathocleous

Squad as Follows:

1.          Dinu Floredan - Pafos Tigers
2.          Tony Thoma - Fylde (Captain)
3.          Christos Kasabi - Saracens Amateurs
4.          Billy Cosma - Woodford #
5.          Lawrence Macrides - Chingford
6.          Jonathan Pettemerides - Singapore CC
7.          Marko Mladenovic - Limassol Crusaders
8.          Chris Thoma - Pafos Tigers
9.          Dimitri Maratheftis - Limassol Crusuders
10.          Andrew Binikos - Currie
11.          Fidias Efthymiou - Pafos Tigers
12.          George Agathocleous - Pafos Tigers
13.          Reno Ioannides - Montlucon
14.          Matt King - Wilmslow
15.          Marcus Holden - RGC 1404
16.          George Stylianou - Limassol Crusaders
17.          Dan McFarlane - Limassol Crusuaders
18.          Frank Stavrou - Saracens Amateurs
19.          AJ Pugh - Pafos Tigers
20.          Dan Thrasivoulou - Derby
21.          Colm O'Cleirigh - Bective Rangers
22.          Andreas Zacharia - Lincoln University

# – Denotes New Caps

Try’s: Pettemerides, Ioannides (2), Agathocleous (3), Holden (3), Binikos

Conversions: Holden, Agathocleous (6)

Penalties: Holden (2)