NETHERLANDS made an impressive start to their European Championship B campaign, winning 36-6 in MALTA.

Joran Schoenmaker scored two tries, including a crucial one on the stroke of half-time for a 14-point lead, as the Dutch dominated.

But victorious coach Dave Hunter said: “It was a good game, the first half was very even.

“Our domestic players made a difference to the game, especially our bench who provided a lot of impact. 

“We had a massive improvement from last week’s warm-up against Ukraine (lost 56-12), the players responded well to that and our edges defended much better.”

UKRAINE ran in eight tries, including two each from wingers Davyd Zazimko and Danylo Vedler, to defeat ITALY 44-20 in the Euro C opener in Udine.

“It was a very exciting game. I’d rather have watched that as a fan than a coach,” said Ukraine head coach Dan Beardshaw.

“It was really impressive how our boys battled through it, especially our domestic players – Oleksandr Fomiuk was very good and he’s only 21-years old. That’s what we’re trying to build here.”

In Euro D, GERMANY thrashed CZECHIA 72-10 in Hradec Králové to set up a winner-takes-all promotion match with Norway on Saturday (October 25) at Sportplatz Welper in Hattingen.

Fabian Kramer scored a hat-trick among a dozen German tries, all of which were converted by Midlands Hurricanes halfback Brad Billsborough.

Germany co-head coach Andy Hay reflected: “It was a tough game, hard-fought and the scoreline doesn’t reflect the effort put in by both sides.

“It has been great to play a competitive game as we don’t play enough together. We’ll make a few changes ahead of next week’s game against Norway.”