Amaya the hero as Uruguay down Romania in Bucharest

Two second half tries from Baltazar Amaya helped Uruguay down Romania 21-16 win in Bucharest. The late call-up to the roster for Uruguay’s European tour touched down with time up to seal a win after Romania had appeared to have already won the match.

The match was the third of 2022 between Uruguay and Romania. The prior two took place in Montevideo in July. The teams split the series while today’s result underlines just how close the teams truly are. It was Uruguay’s second win over Romania in Romania. The first was in Baia Mare in 2018.

The teams were on level terms at the close of the opening quarter. Vlăduț Popa and Felipe Berchesi both landed two penalties. The 6-6 deadlock was broken in the 25th minute; Cristi Chirica scored an impressive try by breaking the tackles of Berchesi and Amaya.

Neither time scored again the opening half. Romania’s 13-6 lead was deserved. Los Teros needed to improve in the second half and they were able to do so. Berchesi landed a penalty to close the deficit to 13-9 just before the close of the third quarter.

Amaya then put Uruguay ahead for the first time. He danced around Atila Septar and Vlăduț Popa to touch down in the right corner. The spectacular try was among Uruguay’s best of the year. Berchesi’s conversion hit the posts to restrict the lead to a single point.

Romania had two late opportunities to reclaim the lead. Popa was off-target with a long-range penalty only to land a tougher one two minutes later. With it Romania were 16-14 ahead with 90 seconds remaining.

From the restart Uruguay kicked long. Romania used the forwards for several phases before box-kicking into Uruguay’s half. Los Teros needed something special. They spun the ball both left and right with a half-break resulting in a penalty advantage. Uruguay put phases together to blast forward. Camped a meter out the forwards sucked in the defense enabling the ball to be spun wide to Amaya for the match-winning try.

Both Romania and Uruguay will play again next weekend. The South Americans take-on Tonga in while Romania face Samoa. Both matches will be in Bucharest. Samoa go in to the match with a shock win over Georgia in Tbilisi. Tonga were convincing winners over Chile on Saturday.

 

SCORING

ROMANIA 16
Try – C Chirica
Con – V Popa (1/1)
Pen – V Popa (3/4)

URUGUAY 21
Try – B Amaya (2)
Con – F Berchesi (3/3)
Pen – F Berchesi (1/2)

 

TEAMS

ROMANIA
1 Vasile Balan, 2 Ovidiu Cojocaru, 3 Gheorghe Gajion, 4 Johan Van Heerden, 5 Marius Iftimiciuc, 6 Kamil Sobota, 7 Mihai Macovei (capt.), 8 Cristi Chirica, 9 Florin Surugiu, 10 Vlăduț Popa, 11 Atila Septar, 12 Fonovai Tangimana, 13 Alexandru Bucur, 14 Nicolas Onuțu, 15 Hinckley Vaovasa

Replacements: 16 Tudor Butnariu, 17 Mihăiță Lazăr, 18 Alexandru Gordaș, 19 Lucian Ionuț Mureșan, 20. Damian Strătilă, 21 Gabriel Rupanu, 22 Daniel Plai, 23 Robert Neagu

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Ignacio Peculo, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Tomás Inciarte, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Gastón Mieres, 12 Andrés Vilaseca (capt.), 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Baltazar Amaya, 15 Felipe Etcheverry

Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Matías Benítez, 18 Mathías Franco, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Lucas Bianchi, 21 Santiago Álvarez, 22 Rodrigo Silva, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Pierre Brousset (FR)
Assistant Referees: Jean Baptiste Nuchy (FR); Adrien Marbot (FR)
TMO: Sean Brickell (UK)