The back end to the season has seen some of its players scattered far and wide and none more so than Ignatians' Cypriot Internationals, Sam Emery and Frank Stavrou, as both helped the island to a comprehensive 46-15 away win against Bulgaria in Sofia (April 26th).

There was a slightly anti-climatic feeling to the weekend for Sam Emery as the centre spent a fair portion of the afternoon and early evening in the A & E unit of the North Middlesex Hospital on his return to Britain.

He said: "Happily, nothing was broken. However. I've sustained ligament damage to a finger of my right hand which calls for a mandatory period of rest.

"It happened in the warm-up, around 40 minutes before kick-off, when I could feel the pain. Happily, the adrenalin kicked-in, and I soon forgot about the discomfort. Overall, I was happy with my performance as I made my tackles and set-up a try.

"Frank Stavrou, like myself, went the full 80 minutes. He made some notable surges and broke the gain line."

So how do we assess the team performance in the light of Cyprus making it a perfect seven from seven in European Group 2C?

The inside centre added: "We were awesome in the first-half. Bulgaria had no say whatsoever and Cyprus built a 39-3 lead. My co-centre, Alex Zavallis, had a great game and his 17 point contribution earned him the Man of the Match award.

"In the second-half by marked contrast, I thought we rather let ourselves down. We started slowly and Bulgaria had their purple patch. We gave away a number of penalties, but since Bulgaria got little change out of the lineout, they resorted to running everything.

"However, there's a good group mentality within the Cypriot squad. It just seems to come together as, when the squad meets up, we all become very focused on the idea of stepping-up and winning."