Os Lobos beat Romania for the 5th time in their history (38-20) and guarantee the top place in Pool B of the Rugby Europe Championship 2023.
Written by: Rui Neto Fernandes
The best part: The Portuguese pack was excellent – even without more experienced players like Francisco Fernandes and Mike Tadjer – fighting tooth and nail with a very physical Romania and always in control of operations.
The not-so-good part: Two more injuries in the Portuguese squad with Jerónimo Portela (first half) and João Granate (second half) being subbed off. Hopefully, the week off will help and they’ll be able to recover for the semi-finals against Spain.
Player of the match: We would like to highlight three players: José Madeira, who played a crucial in the set pieces and scored a try, and Simão Bento that subbed Portela and, just like he had done against Poland, brought a lot of energy and dynamism to the Portuguese offence. However, the player of the match award goes to José Lima. The centre, who assumed the captaincy on behalf of the injured Tomas Appleton, was a true leader on the pitch. Essential in defence, winning some turnovers, was a key piece on Portugal’s offensive manoeuvre, starting the play that culminated with Pedro Lucas’ try.
Amazing performance from the Portuguese team who hosted and beat Romania in the last match of the pool stage of this year’s Rugby Europe Championship. Both teams needed to win in order to avoid a trip to Tbilisi for a semi-final clash against Georgia.
Portugal started with the left foot and conceded a try in the first minute with Taylor Gontineac escaping three tackles and scoring under the posts. The home team didn’t seem to get too affected by it and scored four minutes later by Pedro Bettencourt, in a good individual play after a line-out.
Romania’s game was very physical and “rigid” but Portugal’s forwards were not intimidated by that and answered all the questions their counterpart was asking. At the 12th minute, Portugal won a line-out and a driving maul pushed Romania close to their try line. What followed was a very confusing play, with Portela being tackled very closed to scoring. A Romanian player made the ball go into the dead ball area and it was again Pedro Bettencourt that grounded it, scoring his second try of the afternoon. Nuno Sousa Guedes converted the try (the full-back was flawless from the tea) and put Portugal ahead (14-10).
Until the break, there were no further changes to the scoreboard, with a lot of kicking from both sides in an attempt to gain territory. Even when Romania’s captain Adrian Motoc was sin-binned due to a high tackle on Rodrigo Marta, Portugal didn’t manage to translate that men advantage into points.
The second part started with Sousa Guedes scoring a penalty and Steevy Cerqueira seeing a yellow card. The correspondent penalty resulted in Romania re-establishing the 4 point difference on the scoreboard (17-13).
When everyone thought that Romania’s physically would start weighing on the game, the Lobos kept calm and on top of things, scoring a third try through José Madeira. After a line-out, the Portuguese second row caught the ball, looked to one side to pass the ball but turned around and crossed the try line. Very poor defending from Romania and Portugal extending the lead to 24-13.
At the 58th minute, the best try of the match: José Lima with the line break, winning several meters and an amazing offload to Pedro Lucas. The scrum-half did an outrageous dummy fooling everyone and scored under the posts. Amazing try.
Portugal was comfortable in the game and not even the Romanian try on the 62nd minute that put the score on 31-20 brought back ghosts from the past (last time Portugal hosted Romania, the home team was 13 points up with 5 minutes to go and ended up losing the match by 1 point). The Lobos managed the team perfectly and played the remainder of the match inside Romania’s half. Proof of that was the try scored, close to the end, through an excellent driving maul.
With this victory, Portugal will host Spain in two weeks’ time for the semi-finals of the competition. Romania will travel to Tbilisi to face the title holders Georgia.
