Phoenicians RFC and the revival of rugby in Malta

Rugby came to Malta with British sailors and servicemen and nearly vanished when they left in 1979. Gordon McHarg and Martin Galea revived it, starting with Phoenicians RFC and leading to the Malta Rugby Football Union.

A game brought by the British

Rugby reached Malta with the British, whose sailors seem to have played the first matches in the late nineteenth century. The Overseas Rugby Club, formed in 1946, became the first proper club on the island, made up mainly of British servicemen.

The game stops

In the 1970s St Edward's College and Tal-Handaq College taught the game. In 1979 the British military left Malta, taking with them the teams the sport had depended on, and rugby on the island effectively stopped.

A restart at Marsa

Gordon McHarg had come to Malta from Scotland in 1975 and played rugby at St Edward's College. He set out to restart the game, phoning potential players each week, advertising in the Times of Malta and gathering whoever turned up at Marsa. Accounts differ on the year: McHarg says 1980, his friend Martin Galea recalls around 1982, and a club history gives 1983.

As numbers grew, McHarg and Galea founded Phoenicians RFC. Early matches were played without a referee, with players taking turns, until John Morrison, the Assistant Australian High Commissioner, volunteered. The Overseas club re-formed, the University of Malta fielded a side, and the clubs played visiting naval teams and travelled to Sicily.

From clubs to a union

In 1991 McHarg and Galea signed the articles of association that created the Malta Rugby Football Union. Kavallieri was formed the same year and Stompers in 1996. Since 2000 the union has been a full member of World Rugby, and Malta played its first international on 18 November 2000, losing 58–8 to Moldova in Chişinău.

McHarg died in 2023. Galea wrote that the game's growth might not have happened without his determination.