Montenegro await Malta in Medieval Shield

14 Sep 2023

The squads have been named for this Saturday's clash when Montenegro face Malta in Tivat for the Medieval Shield (kick off 7.30pm local time).

The Shield will see Montenegro play their second official senior international, having lost in the corresponding fixture last year when Malta triumphed 66-6 in Mosta. Montenegro head coach Ian Giddings commented: “We are looking forward with great anticipation to testing ourselves again against Malta, we are training well, and the boys want to give a good account of themselves. It is our first international in Montenegro, I'm sure we will compete for 80 minutes and look forward to sharing a beer with the Malta boys afterwards.”

The bulk of their squad are from RLC Arsenal who play in Tivat.

Malta player/head coach Philip Humphrey won't travel with the squad after suffering a serious leg injury in the last round of the MRL Championship, which saw the Red Knights crowned champions, however the squad will be guided by former head coach Anthony Micallef and captain Karl Cassar who plays for the RAF.

Humphrey said, '”We're honoured to be facing Montenegro and our lads are excited to play in Tivat. We want this to be a marker of how we're going to play moving forward, to show off all that Maltese Rugby League has to offer. We are also building up to our home game against Bulgaria next weekend.”

The match will be live-streamed.

MONTENEGRO SQUAD
Aleksandar Mecikucic, Andrija Dakic, Boban Banjevic, Bojan Mizdalo, Burim Brahimi, Elvis Cenaj, Goran Novakovic, Goran Vujovic, Ilija Ivanovic, Igor Adzaip, Marko Fatic, Marko Novakovic, Milos Dasic, Redzep Baljaj, Srdjan Popovic, Stevan Radonjic (RLC Arsenal Tivat), Bogdan Raicevic (RLC Radnicki Belgrade), Milos Kucancanin, Tvrtko Dumancic (unattached)

MALTA SQUAD
Scott Beerman, Robin Cutajar, Kyle Gauci, Jean-Pierre Zarb (Black Knights, Malta), Aidan Demicoli, Luke Musu, Mark Robertson, William Watts (Blue Knights, Malta), Kaine Dimech (Cornwall RLFC, England), Jayden Azzopardi, Noah Azzopardi (Mascot Jets, Australia), Reece Dimech (Medway Dragons, England), Karl Cassar (RAF Rugby League, England), Mark Camilleri, Peter Debono, Jean Scholey, Nicky Vella (Red Knights, Malta), Josh Cassar (Stanley Rangers)