Portugal run away with Germany

Portugal beat Germany 44-6 in sunny Lisbon, a most impressive performance by the Lobos who ran in five tries. There was a good crowd all around the field with its excellent surface in a well-presented match.

The Germans were bigger and more muscular but the Lobos were cleverer and faster. They did rugby things intuitively, won their set pieces and released their backs of whom inside centre Diogo Mateus was the best, a creative player.

The Germans actually scored first. They attacked down the left and David Mateus was penalised at the tackle. From some 35 metres out and just in from touch flyhalf Kieron Davies goaled to give Germany a 3-0 lead after 10 minutes.

But soon afterwards a late tackle on Diogo Mateus enabled flyhalf Pedro Cabral to level the scores. Germany destroyed the first Portuguese scrum but soon afterwards hooker Timothy Coly earned a yellow card for a tackle that was high and after the whistle. Later in the half Germany would be down to 13 men when lock Jens Schmidt was sent to the sin bin for his side’s third late tackle.

While Coly was off Portugal won a line-out and went wide left. Coming back Pedro Silva cut through as if there was no opposition and beat three defenders on the way to a long-distance try. Cabral converted and the Lobos led 12-3. Moments later Diogo Mateus gratefully intercepted the ball and ran over the half-way line and on to score his side’s second try. 17-3. A Cabral penalty when Germany were penalised for a harsh penalty for playing the man without the ball, the home side led 20-3. That was the half-time score.

As in the first half, Germany scored first and in the same way – a penalty by Davies but Portugal were soon back on the attack and came close to scoring when José Pinto slipped a grubber into in-goal.

A penalty at the tackle gave fullback Pedro Leal a chance to increase the Portuguese lead. 23-6 after 58 minutes.

In the last 20 minutes Portugal really raced away from the willing and eager Germans. The Portuguese ran from their own line and eventually a clever chip to the left was gathered in by Gonçalo Foro who beat three opponents his way to a try. 30-6 after 65 minutes. After Portugal won a turnover a strong run by Foro led to the next try as the big wing passed inside to Diogo Mateus who flicked a pass to big Vasco Uva, the outstanding forward on the field, who scored. 37-6 after 70 minutes.

The final try had none of the romance of the earlier ones. Portugal turned a penalty into a five-metre line-out. The Portuguese bashed and then had a five-metre scrum from which they bashed a lot more, right and then left. That won them another five-metre scrum which led to more bashing and a try for tighthead Cristian Spachuck. The conversion ended the match.

Crowds, especially children ran onto the field to admire their heroes at close quarters.

Portugal’s next match is against Spain on 15 March. After their away draw with Georgia and this big win over Germany Portugal must have serious hopes of getting a direct flight to New Zealand for the 2011 World Cup.

Log at present

Russia, Romania and Georgia have each played two matches, Portugal and Spain three each and Germany four. Portugal are at present top on points’ difference.

1 Portugal 6
2 Russia 6, Romania 6
4 Georgia 5
5 Spain 5
6 Germany 4

The matches for 28 February are:

Spain vs Georgia in Madrid
Romania vs Russia in Bucharest

Scorers:

For Portugal:
Tries: Silva, Diogo Mateus, Foro, Vasco Uva, Spachuk
Cons: Cabral 2, Leal 3
Pens: Cabral 2, Leal

For Germany:
Pens: Davies 2

Teams:

Portugal: 15 Pedro Leal, 14 David Mateus, 13 Pedro Silva, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Gonçalo Foro, 10 Pedro Cabral, 9 Jose Pinto, 8 Tiago Girão, 7 Salvador Palha, 6 Vasco Uva, 5 Gonçalo Uva, 4 David Reis, 3 Cristian Spachuck, 2 João Correia, 1 Jorge Segurado.
Replacements (from): Juan Manuel Murre, Bernardo Duarte, João Junior, Juan Severino, Valter Ferreira, João Uva, Duarte Cardoso, Antonio Aguilar.

Germany: 15 Edmorre Takaendesa, 14 Benjamin Brierley,13 Colin Grzanna, 12 Lars Eckert, 11 Clemens Von Grumbkow, 10 Kieron Davies, 9 Mustafa Gungor, 8 Manuel Wilhelm, 7 Alexander Hug, 6 Timothy Kasten, 5 Bodo Sieber, 4 Jens Schmidt, 3 Pierre Faber, 2 Timothy Coly, 1 Alexander Widiker.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Krause, 17 Marcus Trick, 18 Benjamin Danso, 19 Kehoma Brenner, 20 Rolf Wacha, 21 Thorsten Wiedemann, 22 Christopher Liebig.

Referee: Stefano Pennè (Italy)
Touch judges: Stefano Roscini (Italy), Pio Di Santo (Italy)