The Lobos beat Spain (27-10) and will play in the final of this year’s Rugby Europe Championship.
Written by: Rui Neto Fernandes
The best part: Portugal’s second half, completely in control of the game. It allowed the team to turn things around and the final 20 minutes were really impressive.
The not-so-good part: Portugal made a lot of mistakes in the first half of the match – 5 penalties conceded, 7 (!) missed lineouts, penalties at the scrum (especially when compared to the match against Romania) – that cost points and put Spain ahead at the break.
Player of the match: Samuel Marques. Great display from the Portuguese scrum-half, controlling operations as usual and decisive when the game needed to be sped up and turn things around. It was Portugal’s top scorer with one try, three conversions and two penalties.
Two weeks after beating Romania, Portugal returned to Estadio do Restelo in Lisbon to play the semi-final of the Rugby Europe Championship. The opponent: Spain.
Patrice Lagisquet had a few players unavailable for the match: fly half Jerónimo Portela was injured and some of the French clubs didn’t release players for this match such as hooker Mike Tadjer (Perpignan), Steevy Cerqueira (2nd row, Chambery), José Lima (centre, Narbonne) or Nicolas Martins (flanker, Angouleme). The latter has been crucial in Portugal’s campaign, with 45 completed tackles and none missed in three matches.
Portugal started the match with the wrong foot, making lots of mistakes, especially at the line-out where Joshua Peters (Spain) ruled the air.
Spain took the lead on the board through a penalty converted by Gonzalo Vinuesa and 12 minutes later, in a play where Portugal’s defence was poor, Spain scored a try. However, the TMO saw a forward pass leading to the score and the try was disallowed by the referee Thomas Charabas.
However, it was a prelude to what was about to come. On the 18th minute, and after several phases inside the Portuguese 5m line, Joshua Peters – always him – crossed the try line and scored. Try converted and 0-10 on the board.
Portugal, favourites for this match, were 10 points behind and things weren’t looking great. However, with 10 minutes to go until half-time, Raffaele Storti got rid of three defenders on the right wing, avoided a tackle and passed to captain Tomás Appleton that, with an excellent offload close to the try line, got the ball to Rodrigo Marta that scored Portugal’s first try.
Before the break, full-back Nuno Sousa Guedes – a constant menace to the Spanish defence – had a serious injury and had to be subbed off. Unfortunately, it seems that he won’t be playing anytime soon. Simão Bento took his place and had an excellent match, much like against Romania in the last game of the pool stage.
With Portugal losing 7-10 at the break, Lagisquet brought from the bench loosehead prop Francisco Fernandes and hooker Duarte Diniz and the whole game changed. Portugal became much more consistent on the set pieces and more assured in open play and it was without surprise that Samuel Marques put Portugal ahead through two penalties masterfully executed.
Portugal completely controlled the final 20 minutes of the match which propelled the team forward. At the 68th minute, Duarte Diniz through a maul, Marques added the extras and Portugal was ahead, 20-10. Three minutes later, the Portuguese backs conjured another magic play involving Simão Bento, Vincent Pinto and Rafaele Storti with Samuel Marques, with a great dummy, opening a hole in the Spanish line and scoring Portugal’s third try.
However, another moment of bad luck for Portugal with Raffaele Storti picking another serious injury (elbow). He will be available for the World Cup but will be on the side-lines for a long period of time.
With this victory, Os Lobos will play Georgia on the 19th March in Badajoz, in the match that will decide the winner of the Rugby Europe Championship.
