Portugal was very close to winning but, similarly to other (recent) matches, dropped its form in the last 20 minutes and ended up losing 35-52.
Written by: Rui Neto Fernandes
The best part: Portugal fought until the 60th minute, thanks to an excellent collective effort by their backs. There were also marked improvements in their scrum (compared with the last match against Italy).
The not-so-good part: Similarly to the last matches, Portugal dropped their performance in the last 20 minutes, conceding two tries and a penalty that gave Argentina the victory. The Lobos also struggled a bit with the gain line due to the power of the Argentinean line as well as with the maul.
Player of the match: Manuel Cardoso Pinto. The player of the match could have also gone to Nuno Sousa Guedes that had an excellent match. However, Cardoso Pinto seemed to have a clearer game plan in his head, with several line gains, scoring a try and assisting (with a grubber) for Portugal’s third try.
It was in Lisbon (Estádio do Restelo), a week after a narrow defeat against Italy, that Portugal hosted Argentina XV, the “B” team of the South American country, that serves as a launchpad for the first team, the Pumas.
Argentina presented practically the same team that had defeated, the week before, Georgia in Kutaisi (24-30), featuring players like Tomas Lezana, Mateo Carreras or Tomas Albornoz.
Portugal didn’t start the game very well and Argentina dominated the first five minutes, with a lot of pressure, that culminated with Mateo Carreras’ try. However, Portugal quickly answered back: Nuno Sousa Guedes found space in the centre of the pitch and took his team to Argentina’s 22. After several phases, and a great work by the Portuguese forwards, Rafael Simões scored. Samuel Marques converted and tied the game at 7.
With 14 minutes played, Argentina was penalised in their own line-out which allowed Portugal to have a scrum in the middle of the pitch. After a fast introduction and pass, Nuno Sousa Guedes (again), darted down the left wing and kicked a grubber that Raffaele Storti, faster than all his opponents, used to score Portugal’s second try.
The match was quite frantic and minutes later, Tomas Lezana got the ball to Albornoz. He found Mateo Carreras on the right that almost scored if it wasn’t for Rodrigo Marta, with a last-minute tackle in the dead-ball area that caused the Argentinean to knock the ball forward.
Portugal added 3 more points to the scoreboard through Samuel Marques’ foot with a penalty 40 metres away from the posts – the scrum half was, again, deadly with the foot – that gave Portugal a 17-7 lead with 18 minutes played. Argentina scored another try four minutes later by Santiago Socino after an offload by Francisco Gorrissen but Samuel Marques, with a penalty from the half-way line scored again and move the scoreboard to 20-14 for the home team.
Storti scored again, in a try very similar to his first one. However, this time, it was Manuel Cardoso Pinto that played the grubber, with the Portuguese winger scoring with relative ease. Argentina would score again before half time with Mateo Carreras zigzagging between six (!) Portuguese defenders before scoring. At half-time, Portugal led 25-21.
The match was very tight with several chances for both sides and the thousands of fans that went to Restelo, believed that Portugal could snatch the victory. This belief got stronger when, at the beginning of the second half, Nuno Sousa Guedes found a gap that broke through the Argentinean defensive line. The ball reached Cardoso Pinto that got rid of the Argentinean defenders and scored another try.
Portugal could have scored again, and really increased the pressure on the Jaguares, minutes later when Cardoso Pinto, after a good progression from the wing to the centre of the pitch, passed to the captain Tomas Appleton who was stopped very close to the try line. After a pass back to the left wing, Sousa Guedes lost control of the ball when he was getting ready to score.
This changed the game and Argentina took control. Mateo Carreras score his hat-trick at the 51st minute and four minutes later, the South Americans scored their fifth try (through a maul), leaping forward on the scoreboard (32-35).
Samuel Marques scored another penalty and tied the game but Portugal was nowhere to be found and Argentina scored two more tries (71st and 79th minute) and a penalty, setting the final score to 35-52.
A similar story happened in the recent past, in matches against Italy (31-38), Georgia (25-25), Romania (27-28 and 37-27) or even Japan (25-38), where Portugal was very close to winning just to waste it all in the final minutes of the match.
It was, however, a very valuable test match, that will certainly be useful for the playoff that Portugal will play in November for the last ticket for the World Cup.
