2003 World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson watches history being made

England’s 2003 World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson was among a 2,000-strong crowd as Malta celebrated their 100th international with an epic 37-31 win over Germany at the Tony Bezzina Stadium, Paola.

Malta’s first-ever home Rugby Europe Trophy clash coincided with Johnson’s trip to the Mediterranean island, which included a visit to the British High Commission in Valetta.

Germany, who were one win away from qualifying for the 2019 World Cup, were ranked eight places above their hosts, but Malta blew them away in the early stages, racing into a 20-0 lead inside the first half-hour.

The visitors rallied and closed the gap to three points 11 minutes into the second half, but Malta managed to keep their noses in front and held on for a momentous victory.

After coming from 17-0 behind to beat Denmark 36-17 on their Trophy debut, this win over Germany was made possible by another brilliant individual performance from inside centre Christopher Dudman.

Dudman, who scored two tries and kicked 11 points against the Danes, crossed for one of Malta’s four tries on Saturday, all of which he converted, in addition to two penalty goals, for a 19-point haul.

On Saturday, Malta will bid to make it three wins from three, following promotion from the Conference, at home to Sweden, another higher-ranked team.

The results vindicate head coach Dr Phil Pretorius’ decision to shake up his coaching team ahead of the Trophy challenge, with the likes of former All Black Brad Thorn, Greg Goodfellow and former Spain 7s player Jaike Carter no longer involved.

South African Pretorius’ task this week has been to keep the players’ feet on the ground and remain focused on the next task at hand.

“As you can be aware it was quite a task to get the players grounded after Saturday’s heroic effort, and success! Unfortunately, they had to come down from the clouds because this coming Saturday another mountain top awaits as we meet Sweden,” he said.

“Sweden is ranked number 34 in the world and has a strong network of players; at least forty-fold more than Malta. They are coming off a big 60-22 win over Lithuania and last season were among the top 3 sides in European Trophy.

“From our side we have lost six players due to either injuries, work commitments (as non-professional players), or personal circumstances.

“Whilst we will be thinly spread with playing numbers, our hearts beat as one and that is to make Malta proud. We will take the fight to them.

“We have to neutralise their 12 centre (captain Axel Kalling-Smith), a rare talent, and their forwards mauling.

“However we have plans of our own and we will run at them and tackle them with the belief that we can achieve greatly.

“Lastly, we appreciate the local support at the stadium – the players enjoy it so much; a big thank you to all. We are also grateful to the government for their support to the sport of rugby.”