Romania overcome spirited Chile

In the history-making first-ever test match between Romania, and Los Cóndores the Eastern Europeans came out on top defeated a spirited Chile 27-11 in Valparaíso this evening.

The win was expected though the margin was far closer than that projected. With Romania having played in all RWCs from 1987-2015, and Chile yet to qualify this was very much a mismatch. Moreover the respective results of the teams in regional competition only went to further tilt the likely result towards a Romanian win of 25 points, if not more.

Instead what unfolded in Valparaíso was a close match as the youthful side selected by Romanian Head Coach Marius Tincu was given a genuine push by the South Americans.

Romania’s 16 point win would be an improvement from their 10 point half-time advantage. They went into the break leading 13-3, having started well through the 119 time capped center Florin Vlaicu.

The center would land an opening minute penalty which wold be responded to by Santiago Videla. The Chilean fly half would make it a 3-3 scoreline after just three minutes of play.

Ten minutes into the match saw Vlaicu restoring the Oaks’ lead to 6-3. They would remain in front for the duration of the contest.

Chile’s defense would see Romanian drives at the line protected. Yet it was only a matter of time until the Oaks found their way over. Doing so for the only try of the opening half was Eugen Capatana.

On the other side of half-time a second Romanian score would put the Oaks into a dominant position. It came from fine work from loose head prop Constantin Pristavita and would culminate in fly half Tudor Boldor touching down.

Los Cóndores were determined to improve their showing and they would, indeed fight their way back into the contest. They did so via a penalty from Videla and a well worked try scored in the left corner by Julio Blanc.

The Chilean score came following rampaging runs from props Ramón Ayarza and Matías Dittus, as well as a superb pass from Julio Blanc to Iñaki Ayarza.

Romania did not travel to Chile to lose and the reduced lead saw them playing well late in the piece to ensure victory. Stamping his mark on the game was Vlaicu who scored a late try and then added his own conversion to finish with a personal haul of 17 points.

Both Chile, and Romania are to play again next weekend. Los Cóndores will face Spain in Santiago while Romania travel to Jundiaí to face Brazil.

 

SCORING

CHILE 11
Tries – J. Blanc (53′)
Cons – S. Videla 0/1
Pens – S. Videla 2/2 (5′, 64′)
Yellow cards – I. Silva (38′)

ROMANIA 27
Tries – E. Capatana (30′), T. Boldor (48′), F. Vlaicu (74′)
Cons – F. Vlaicu 3/3 (31′, 49′, 75′)
Pens – F. Vlaicu 2/2 (2′, 11′)

 

TEAMS

CHILE
1 Ramón Ayarza (18 José Tomás Munita 73′), 2 Augusto Böhme (16 Tomás Dussaillant HT), 3 Matías Dittus (17 Javier Carrasco 63′), 4 Pablo Huete, 5 Javier Eissmann (19 Augusto Sarmiento 68′), 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Nicolás Garafulic (20 Clemente Saavedra 72′), 8 Ignacio Silva (21 Benjamín Soto 73′), 9 Beltrán Vergara (22 Juan Pablo Larenas 73′), 10 Santiago Videla, 11 Julio Blanc, 12 Iñaki Ayarza, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 14 Lucca Avelli, 15 Christian Huerta (23 Benjamín Baraona 73′)

ROMANIA
1 Constantin Pristavita (16 Alexandru Savin 51′), 2 Eugen Capatana (17 Ovidiu Cojocaru 51′), 3 Alex Gordas (18 Cosmin Manole 59′), 4 Johan van Heerden (19 Ionut Muresan 59′), 5 Marius Antonescu, 6 Mihai Macovei (capt.), 7 Adrian Ion (20 Vlad Neculau 65′), 8 Cristi Chirica, 9 Florin Surugiu (21 Gabriel Rupanu 67′), 10 Tudor Boldor (22 Daniel Plai 59′), 11 Nicolas Onutu, 12 Florin Vlaicu, 13 Taylor Gontineac, 14 Mihai Lamboiu (23 Robert Neagu 65′), 15 Dorin Manole

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Claudio Antonio (UAR)