Wrap: Nations Cup, Final Round

Emerging South Africa won the Nations Cup 2008 when they beat Romania ?? in the final match, thus remaining the only unbeaten side.

Georgia had a surprisingly big win over Italy A and Uruguay came from well behind to beat Russia near the end of the match.

The final standings of the six teams was:

1. South Africa
2. Georgia
3. Romania
4. Italy A
5. Uruguay
6. Russia

Match Reports

Uruguay vs Russia, 23-19

Russia and Uruguay, two teams of remarkably similar standards, in their first ever encounter, have produced a thoroughly entertaining and, in the closing stages, dramatic match in the final day of the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest, Romania.

Los Teros won 23-19, but only gained this four-point advantage literally on the whistle – by one goal, a converted penalty try and three penalties to a goal, three penalties and one drop goal.

The Uruguayans, dominant early on, took a six-point lead through their fullback Matias Arocena who landed two penalties. Their scrum was tight and they managed to win their own ball in the line-out, but the experiment with Emiliano Caffera at flyhalf failed to bring the expected dividends. Their back division did not ignite and they had to revert to their traditional tight tactics. In this context they had in veteran prop Pablo Lemoine not only a scrummager emeritus able to use his bulk effectively in the tight but also a wise old head who helped his team to capitalise on Russian mistakes.

But as the match wore on, with the two teams making abundant unforced errors, the Russians asserted themselves as their opponents seem to slightly fade away towards the end of the first half . Interestingly, the withdrawal of Russian veteran scrumhalf Victor Motorin just before the beginning of the match because of family problems, offered his understudy Alexander Yanushkyn the chance to start and produce a composed and thoroughly effective performance, behind a very athletic and influential back row of Kushnarev, Fatakhov and the tireless and talented Sorokin at number 8. 

As Russia recovered they took the game into the Uruguay half and their replacement hooker Alexey Volkov crashed over for the first try of the match to bring them back into contention. Yanushkin converted and added a penalty a couple of minutes later, to take Russia to a 10-6 lead at half time.

In the second half Uruguay cut the deficit to one point through Arocena, but as time wore on the Russians managed to assert their authority based on the good work of their pack, and of scrumhalf Yanushkyn, who landed two more penalties and the talented fly half Sergey Kuzmenko, the author of a drop goal. Russia now led 19-10.

The final stages of the match found Uruguay in attack. Some five minutes from time, Sorokin got his marching orders from referee Radu Petrescu following a number of infringements at a line-out near the Russian line. Having opted for a scrum at the subsequent penalty, the Uruguayans drove the Russian pack backwards, but as they inexorably approached the line, one of the Russian forwards kicked the ball out from under the feet of the Teros number 8 Ignacio Conti.

Referee Petrescu had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try, duly converted by Arocena. Two minutes later, in a virtually identical scenario, the Uruguayan scrum drove the Russians backwards, with Conti touching down for the winning try, with Arocena converting.

Pablo Lemoine of Uruguay said afterwards: “It does not come any better for a prop than two pushovers tries. It is great for me, for the front row, for the pack and for the team. A good win for Uruguay.”

Juan Campomar, the captain of Uruguay, said: “It was a good win. I am delighted with the character of this team. Even when we were led by 10 points we felt that we could win. We calmed down, took our time, made sure we took our chances and won in the end.

“This competition is a great tournament and it was great for us to compete at this level. Thanks to all our hosts, Romania who did an excellent job, to our opponents and of course IRB, who organised a marvellous competition. We want to come back next year.”

Vladimir Marchenko the Russian captain said: “Some of our players were tired and we also missed some of our better players. We will improve and we will do better in the next matches. It was a very useful tournament.”

Scorers:

For Uruguay:
Tries: Conti, penalty try
Cons: Arocena 2
Pens: Arocena 3

For Russia:
Tries: Volkov
Con: Yanushkin
Pens: Yanushkin 3
Drop: Kuzmenko

Teams:

Russia: 15 Valery Ignatev, 14 Dmiry Zubarev, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 12 Sergey Belousov, 11 Oleg Kobzev, 10 Sergey Kuzmenko, 9 Alexander Yanushkin, 8 Andrey Sorokin, 7 Artem Fatakhov, 6 Kirill Kushnarev, 5 Andrey Lugin, 4 Victor Kobzev, 3 Alexey Travkin, 2 Vladimir Marchenko (captain), 1 Alexander Khrokin
Replacements: 16 Alexey Volkov, 17 Vladimir Botvinnikov, 18 Alexey Chernyshev, 19 Sergey Bazhenov, 20 Nobody, 21 Sergey Shishkov, 22 Sergey Trishin

Uruguay: 15 Matias Arocena, 14 Pablo Bueno, 13 Joaquin Pastore, 12 Santiago Rodino, 11 Agustín Perez Del Castillo, 10 Emiliano Caffera, 9 Juan Campomar (captain), 8 Ignacio Conti, 7 Juan Pablo Horta, 6 Santiago Carracedo, 5 Mario Sagario, 4 Martin Espiga, 3 Pablo Lemoine, 2 Carlos Arboleya, 1 Rodrigo Sanchez
Replacements: 16 Nicholas Klapenbach, 17 Sebastian Levaggi, 18 Juan Rombys, 19 Diego Magno, 20 Nicolas Morales, 21 Juan Martin Llovet, 22 Ivo Dugonjic

Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania)
Touch judges: Horatiu Bargaunas (Romania), Michael Chachua (Georgia)

Georgia vs Italy A, 25-3

In the second match of the final day of action at the IRB Nations Cup a fired up Georgia dissipated all speculations about the various tournament winning scenarios involving Italy A, by demolishing their highly rated opponents by two goals, one try and two penalties to one penalty goal at the Arcul de Triumf Stadium in Bucharest.

Before the Italians could draw their breath after the national anthems, the Georgians had already scored their first try through their abrasive and highly effective loosehead prop David Gasviani. Though he failed with the conversion, flyhalf Lasha Malaguradze landed a penalty some 10 minutes later, which seemed to trigger off a belated Italian reaction. It was a period of about 10 minutes of relentless Italian attacks, which were eventually stopped by ferocious Georgian tackling.

It was the old fashion bone-crunching tackle that stopped the Italians in their tracks time and again. In the end, the Italians opted for a penalty, duly converted by their new flyhalf Davide Duca.

The match carried on in a similar fashion, with the Italians doing the running and Georgians absorbing the pressure and tackling like men possessed. With the first half reaching the closing stages, the Georgians found themselves in attack, and at a scum near the Italian line powered their way for a pushover try, signed off by their athletic open side flank Irakli Gundishvili. Malaguradze converted just before half-time. Georgia led 15-3.

After the break, as the Italian team faded, no doubt worn out by both the intensity of the match as well as the hard and merciless tackling of their opponents, the Georgian game went up a notch, with a net result of another penalty and an additional try by replacement centre Beka Tsiklauri in the closing stages of a ferociously fought encounter. The four-point win and the bonus point place Georgia provisionally in the tournament runner up position, naturally depending on the outcome of the final clash between Romania and Emerging South Africa.

Scorers:

For Georgia:
Tries: Gasviani, Gundishvili, Tsiklauri
Cons: Malaguradze 2
Pens: Malaguradze 2

For Italy A:
Pen: Duca

Teams:

Italy A: 15 Paolo Buso, 14 Michele Sepe, 13 Alberto Sgarbi, 12 Alessio Galante, 11 Andrea Sartoretto, 10 Davide Duca, 9 Giulio Toniolatti, 8 Manoa Vosawai, 7 Nicola Cattina, 6 Paul Derbyshire, 5 Valerio Bernabò, 4 Antonio Pavanello, 3 Matteo Pietrosanti, 2 Luigi Ferraro (captain), 1 Alberto De Marchi
Replacements: 16 Franco Sbaraglini, 17 Lorenzo Giovanchelli, 18 Agustín Cavalieri, 19 Silvio Orlando, 20 Pietro Travagli, 21 Diego Varani, 22 Andrea Barbieri

Georgia: 15 Otar Barkalaia, 14 Giorgi Shkinin, 13 Alexander Todua, 12 Lasha Khmaladze, 11 Irakli Chkhikvadze, 10 Lasha Malaguradze, 9 Bidzina Samkharadze, 8 Besarion Udesiani (captain), 7 Irakli Gundishvili, 6 Simon Maisuradze, 5 Kakhaber Uchava, 4 Giorgi Nemsadze, 3 Giorgi Khositashvili, 2 Iuri Natriashvilii, 1 David Gasviani
Replacements: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Shota Melikidze, 18 Karlen Aseishvili, 19 Viktor Kolelishvili, 20 Giorgi Rokhvadze, 21 Beka Tsiklauri, 22 Irakli Kiasashvili

Referee: Pro Legoete (South Africa)
Touch judges: Horatiu Bargaunas (Romania), Gustavo Gerbasi (Uruguay)

Emerging South Africa vs Romania, 25-13

Emerging South Africa retained for the second consecutive year the IRB Nations trophy, defeating Romania 25-13 in a passionate climax to the six-nation tournament at the Stadionul National Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest.

The final stages of the match were played in a torrential rainstorm, which did not dampen the enthusiasm of the public, nor prevent the South Africans from scoring an additional try, which denied Romania a bonus point and therefore pushed them into the third position overall, with Georgia, the surprise of the tournament, moving into the silver medal position. 

In the first half the South African pack did the necessary in the tight, where they achieved a minimal edge, but were somewhat taken aback by the vivacity of the Romanian forwards in the loose, with the former wing forward Florin Corodeanu, re-cast at lock-forward, and his back-row companion skipper Mersoiu, Burcea and Macovei dominating the exchanges against their highly rated opponents.

The first to put points on the board were the Romanians, through flyhalf Danut Dumbrava, some two minutes into the game. After about 20 minutes of sterile attacks followed by equally fruitless attempts to kick a number of penalties awarded by Italian referee Alan Falzone, South Africa skipper Morgan Newman managed to land a penalty to level the score.

A few moments later an unexpected break put South African full back Bjorn Basson through for a well-deserved try, converted by Newman. Romania returned to attack and solid South African defence as well as a number of errors prevented Mersoiu and his forwards from reaching the try line.

In the end, the Romanians had to settle for a penalty, which, with Romania flyhalf Dumbrava yellow-carded and off the field for a high tackle, was duly converted by centre Ionut Dimofte.  
   
After the break, well advised by coach Chester Williams, the South Africans increased the pace and tried to move the ball wide, which failed to surprise the Romanian backs, already marshalled by veteran Romeo Gontineac, winning his 76th cap at centre.

Under pressure the Romanians gave away a penalty – followed by a breakaway try from a scrum near the 10-metre line signed off by the right wing Howard Noble. The try galvanised the Romanians, who attacked with the ball in hand, and after a few penalties near the line, and a yellow card for Emerging South Africa replacement flank Zolani Mofu, Florin Corodeanu went over for a well-deserved try.

Although there is a long way yet for Romania to sit at the top table of rugby, the progress made from their tame performance in the opening match against Uruguay, to the effort in the final against Emerging South Africa, has made a clear statement about their potential and intentions.

After the match and before the presentation of the medals and the trophy, Romeo Gontineac, playing his last match for Romania, received two presentations  for his contributions to the Oaks over the years.

Morgan Newman (captain Emerging South Africa) said afterwards: “It’s great! We are very happy because we won for the second time in a row. It’s a great tournament. Romania is a very good side, but also our boys were very good, all the 26 of us played really well.

“I think we’ll go now to have a few drinks. I think the boys really deserved it. We will go now back to our union for our domestic competition. Hopefully some of us will go now to the full Springbok side but we need to confirm and to play really well.”
 
Ellis Meachen (director of Rugby Romania) said:  “It was a close game. We created some opportunities in the first half, but we need  more speed. We need to find some players with good speed, because you saw the South Africans, when they create space they use their speed and score tries.

“Emerging South Africa played very good rugby and they deserved to win. It was anyway a good tournament for Romania, we have five guys who made  their  debuts. We started to develop a process of good skills and trust in each other in the team. We come back to the camp on the 1 August for a trip to New Zealand and Pacific Islands, which should further develop our national team.” 

Scorers:

For Emerging South Africa:
Tries: Basson, Noble, Jennecker
Cons: Newman 2
Pens: Newman 2

For Romania:
Try: Corodeanu
Cons: Dumbrava
Pens: Dumbrava, Dimofte

Teams:

Emerging South Africa: 15 Bjorn Basson, 14 Howard Noble, 13 Justin St Jerry, 12 Morgan Newman (captain), 11 Rocco Jansen, 10 Jodie Rose, 9 Waren Malgas, 8 Ashley Johnson, 7 Devon Raubenheimer, 6 Francois Prinsloo, 5 Nico du Plessis, 4 Cobus Grobler, 3 Philip Lemmer, 2 Jody Jennecker, 1 Sangoni Moxi
Replacements: 16 Greg van Jaarsveldt, 17 Janro van Niekerk, 18 Berend Botha, 19 Zolani Mofu, 20 Sarel Pretorius, 21 Isma-eel Dollie, 22 Richard Lawson

Romania: 15 Adrian Barbuliceanu, 14 Catalin Fercu, 13 Catalin Dascalu, 12 Ionut Dimofte, 11 Stefan Ciuntu, 10 Danut Dumbrava, 9 Florin Surugiu, 8 Costica Mersoiu (captain), 7 Mihai Macovei, 6 Stelian Burcea, 5 Valentin Poparlan, 4 Florin Corodeanu, 3 Paulica Ion, 2 Florin Tasca, 1 Radu Basalau
Replacements: 16 Bogdan Zebega, 17 Mihaita Lazar, 18 Alexandru Grigore, 19 Daniel Carpo, 20 Valentin Ivan, 21 Romeo Gontineac, 22 Florin Vlaicu

Referee: Alan Falzone (Italy)
Touch judges: Gustavo Gerbasi (Uruguay), Vladimir Volnik ( Russia)

Thanks to Chris Thau of the IRB