Rugby Europe Super Cup 2022: Third Round
Lusitanos beat in Valladolid the Castilla y Leon Iberians by 20-22.
Written by: Nuno Madeira do O
The best part: This victory allows the Lusitanos to give an important step forward, towards a qualification for the semi-finals. Another victory against the Iberians on the 15th October will practically ensure that the Lusitanos will also top the Western Conference.
The not-so-good part: The Lusitanos made several mistakes during the match: line-outs, 22 drop goals, passing, knock-ons, there were mistakes for all tastes. Luckily, the Iberians were also not very inspired and couldn’t take advantage from all the presents that the Portuguese side made them.
Player of the match: In the Spanish side, Siosiua Moala was a constant threat for the Lusitanos defence, especially in the first half, with several carries and metres won. In the Portuguese side, Nuno Sousa Guedes and Manuel Cardoso Pinto played well and cause several problems to the Iberians’ line. However, we would like to highlight the Lusitanos’ back row (Cerejo-Wallis-Simões) that had a very busy afternoon. Our player of the match goes to David Wallis that was involved in two of the three tries, with himself scoring the third one. Good on tackle and ruck, he was always available to help his team in attack too.
Intense. That’s the word that best described this match of the Rugby Europe Super Cup 2022. The two teams were top of the Western Conference with 9 points and the winner would give an important step forward towards qualification to the semi-finals.
The Lusitanos presented several changes from the team that had defeated Delta, and the Devils in the previous two rounds. Some players with plenty of Lobos experience were back: (David Wallis (7), Rafael Simões (8), and Nuno Sousa Guedes (15) were back, with Tomas Appleton moving to his usual 12 jersey (he had played at 10 in the last match). With Sousa Guedes back, Manuel Cardoso Pinto was moved from full back to left wing. Also important to highlight that Francisco Meneres (10) and José Paiva dos Santos (14) were back in the squad after having played the World Cup 7s in South Africa.
The beginning of the match was very tactical, with both teams trying to gain territory and a better offensive position by kicking. The Lusitanos were on top but some mistakes in the line out didn’t allow for a complete dominance. With 6 minutes played, the Iberians won a penalty and Baltazar Taibo scored the first three points to the home side.
The Lusitanos answered back 4 minutes later. Good combination between Pedro Lucas and Francisco Meneres with the former starting and finishing the play. Nuno Sousa Guedes didn’t miss the conversion and the Lusitanos took the lead (3-7).
Both teams carried on making mistakes and the Iberians could have scored through another penalty. However, in this occasion, Taibo missed the target. At the 19th minute, another great try from the Lusitanos: Duarte Torgal won several metres in the central channels, the ball went through Xavier Cerejo and David Wallis before reaching Nuno Sousa Guedes. The Portuguese fullback took two defenders from the way and crossed the try line. Conversion successful and 3-14 on the scoreboard with 20 minutes to play in the first half.
At the 24th minute, Taibo had his third chance to kick to the posts and, this time, didn’t miss. At this point, the Iberians took control of the match but didn’t manage to translate that dominance into points. To make things harder, with 33 minutes played, David Costa saw a yellow card for a shoulder tackle and the Lusitanos were down to 14 men (Manuel Cardoso Pinto was chosen to make way for André Arrojado to come to the pitch and play loosehead prop).
At the break, the scoreboard showed 6-14 for the away team.
The second half started with the Iberians’ first try: several phases of pick and go with Sacha Casanas eventually scoring. Conversion also successful, 13-14 on the board and all to play with 38 minutes to go.
The Lusitanos tried to increase the difference in the scoreboard but they had to wait until the 58th minute when David Wallis scored the third try for the Portuguese side: Nuno Sousa Guedes won several metres, before passing to Manuel Cardoso Pinto. The winger was close to scoring but was tackled close to the try line. However, despite being on the floor, he managed to offload to the openside flanker that scored easily (13-19).
10 minutes later, the Lusitanos won a penalty on the scrum and Nuno Sousa Guedes added 3 more points to his personal tally. 13-22 with 10 minutes to go which mean that the Iberians had to score twice to win the match. The first chance for that came shortly after, through a penalty but Taibo missed again.
However, they scored at the 74th minute: ball on the left wing and João Belo with a high tackle when he was the last defender. Penalty Try for the Iberians, yellow card for the Portuguese scrum-half, Lusitanos down (again) to 14 men and another helping of anxiety to those watching the match.
Until the end of the match, the Lusitanos could have solved the match but, in the space of 2 minutes, they had another bad line-out, lost the ball in an offensive maul, and made a penalty. Luckily, nothing came of these mistakes and after another bad line-out (this time, a Spanish one), Tomás Appleton kicked the ball out and the referee blew the final whistle.
With this victory, the Lusitanos are now top of their Conference with 13 points. Both teams will play again on the 15th October, this time in Lisbon.
