Uruguay hold on to split series with Romania

Uruguay held on to defeat Romania 26-20 on Sunday at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo. It sees Los Teros splitting the series against the Oaks and restores some confidence after the disappointing loss at the same venue a week ago.

The first score went to the visitors, who had Uruguay under pressure from the start. Hinckley Vaovasa broke the line and looked to pass to his left, but a trailing Gabriel Rupanu was taken out off the ball by Manuel Ardao. The referee ruled that a try would have been scored, and awarded seven points to Romania and a yellow card to Ardao.

A mistake by Rupanu at the back of a ruck nearly cost Romania a try. The ball was rolled out of the back and Germán Kessler snatched it up, but the Oaks reacted quickly enough to hold up the Teros hooker in-goal and force a goal-line drop-out.

Before Ardao returned to the pitch, Uruguay would strike through their backline. A wide miss-out pass from Felipe Berchesi gave Nicolas Freitas the space to tie in two defenders, and he popped the ball away just in time to a looping Felipe Etcheverry who rounded the corner. Berchesi couldn’t connect on the conversion from wide out.

Los Teros would score a second try soon after. A penalty against Romania conceded an attacking lineout, and the forwards crashed ahead until Eric Dosantos went low under the post defense to cross just beside the upright. It was a simple conversion for Berchesi.

The same mistake was then made by Uruguay, with Romania turning down a shot at goal to kick for the corner. When the maul was slowed the ball went wide to captain Marius Simionescu whose outside angle took him through a gap to score. Rupanu handled the kicking duties and nudged the Oaks ahead.

Romania’s lead would not last long. With Andrei Toader lying injured on the ground, Agustin Ormaechea spotted a gap where the second row might have been and darted through to score a third try for Los Teros. The conversion from Berchesi made it 19-14 to the home side.

Both teams would have chances to score, and the Oaks would finally take points after Jason Tomane was held up in-goal. Rupanu’s penalty goal reduced Uruguay’s lead to just two points at halftime.

The Oaks rang the changes with five replacements at once early in the second half. Perhaps the disruption was untimely, as moments later Andrés Vilaseca ran an outside-in line off the back of a lineout that caught Dragos Ser off-balance and there was nobody in behind to stop the Uruguayan skipper.

Simionescu twice turned down the posts to kick for the corner, both times failing to score a try. Finally from a third opportunity the ball was handed to Mihai Muresan, who had only just taken the pitch in his international debut. The 19-year-old was on target with his first kick to make it a one-score game.

Berchesi would have a shot at stretching the lead at 73 minutes but his attempt was pushed wide of the posts. Romania instead regained possession and camped inside Uruguayan territory for the final minutes of the match. The Oaks inched ahead, however an obstruction with 82 minutes on the clock ended the attack and brought the match to a close.

 

SCORING

URUGUAY 26
Tries – F. Echeverry (12′), E. Dosantos (16′), A. Ormaechea (24′), A. Vilaseca (50′)
Cons – F. Berchesi 3/4 (17′, 25′, 51′)
Pens – F. Berchesi 0/1
YC – M. Ardao (4′)

ROMANIA 20
Tries – Penalty try (4′), M. Simionescu (19′)
Cons – No kick (4′), G. Rupanu 1/1 (20′)
Pens – G. Rupanu 1/1 (40’+1′), M. Muresan 1/1 (66′)

 

TEAMS

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti (17 Juan Echeverría 63′), 2 Germán Kessler (16 Guillermo Pujadas 66′), 3 Ignacio Péculo (18 Mathias Franco 74′), 4 Eric Dosantos, 5 Franco Lamanna (19 Tomás Etcheverry 66′), 6 Lucas Bianchi (20 Carlos Deus 77′), 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Ardao, 9 Agustín Ormaechea (21 Tomás Inciarte 55′), 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez (23 Juan Manuel Alonso 80′), 14 Rodrigo Silva, 15 Felipe Etcheverry (22 Bautista Basso 60′)

ROMANIA
1 Dorin Tica (17 Vasile Balan 49′), 2 Eugen Capatana (16 Iulian Hartig 49′), 3 Gheorghe Gajion (18 Victor Leon 49′), 4 Marius Iftimiciuc (19 Stefan Iancu 52′), 5 Andrei Toader (20 Dragos Ser 25′-38′), 6 Johann van Heerden, 7 Cristi Boboc (20 Dragos Ser 49′), 8 Kamil Sobota, 9 Gabriel Rupanu (21 Alexandru Tigla 49′), 10 Vladut Popa (22 Mihai Muresan 64′), 11 Hinckley Vaovasa, 12 Jason Tomane, 13 Alexandru Bucur (23 Gabriel Pop 55′), 14 Sioeli Lama, 15 Marius Simionescu (capt.)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
Assistants: Nehuén Jauri Rivero (Argentina) & Gonzalo de Achaval (Argentina)
TMO: Lucas Galán (Argentina)