The Lobos lost against Romania, in a match that may have been decisive in the race to the World Cup 2023.
Article by: Rui Neto Fernandes
The best part: Portugal’s first half, especially after the first ten minutes, with a great capacity to increase the pace of the game and to created danger near Romania’s 22.
The not-so-good part: Portugal’s defeat. To add assault to injury, Portugal lost the losing bonus point in the last play of the match which makes the qualification for the World Cup a lot trickier.
Player of the match: Vincent Pinto. Pau’s winger had a great match and his speed was always a threat for the Romanian defence. He scored 2 tries and was also involved in a third one.
Portugal’s Head Coach, Patrice Lagisquet, had warned of how crucial a victory in this match was. The Lobos showed up in Bucharest, motivated by the brilliant draw against Georgia in Tblissi but, despite that, they ended up losing 37-27 and got (fatally?) delayed in the qualification for 2023’s World Cup.
Portugal started the match badly and Romania scored their first penalty at the 4th minute by Ionel Melinte, that ended up being the top-scorer of the home team. From that point onwards, Portugal assumed the reins of the match and controlled the whole first half. At the 24th minute, the centre José Lima (also a great exhibition) scored the first try of the match, taking advantage of a poor ruck by Romania, just outside their 22. Samuel Marques missed the conversion, with the ball hitting the post (the same had happened minutes before when Jorge Abecasis tried to score a drop-goal).
The match began with some pressure from the home team with Portugal standing their ground against the heavier Samuel Marques scored another penalty (28th minute), putting Portugal at 3-8 and four minutes later, Vincent Pinto passed to the fullback Manuel Cardoso Pinto that calmly passed to Rodrigo Marta for the second try of the Portuguese team.
The last five minutes of the first half were completely hectic: at the 36th minute mark, Ionel Melinde scored a penalty for Romania, putting the scoreboard at 6-15. However, in the next play, Vincent Pinto won the ball up in the air that spilled over to Manuel Cardoso Pinto. The fullback returned the ball to Pinto that scored the third Portuguese try. With less than one minute on the clock, Portugal couldn’t control the game and with the clock on red, Romania scored their first try, putting the score at 13-22 at half-time.
After the promising first half, where Portugal controlled the match, the second one was very different. Portugal managed to score their fourth try at the 48th minute with Samuel Marques intercepting a pass before assisting Vincent Pinto for his second try of the day.
However, this marked the beginning of the end for Portugal. At the 50th minute, Samuel Marques was sin-binned due to a deliberate knock-on and immediatlely after that, Romania scored their second try through the hooker Ovidiu Cojocaru.
Down to 14 men, the Lobos lost their feet and Romania scored naturally another try, equalising at 27 (Savin). Shortly after that, a penalty put the home team ahead by three points (30-27, 69 minutes). To make matters worse, Romania scored their 4th try with the clock on red (again), sealing the match with the score on 37-27, which lead to Portugal losing its losing bonus point.
With this defeat, Portugal is on the 4th place of the group, 6 points behind Romania and 5 points behind Spain. To make the World Cup dream come true, the Lobos have to win the next three matches (Netherlands, Spain and Russia). The direct qualification (2nd place of the group) is still possible, but it’s now dependent on what Romania and Spain will do (Russia and Netherlands can no longer qualify).
