A supreme second-half from Uruguay saw Los Teros powering past Portugal on Saturday. The 26-8 victory kicks-off Uruguay’s European tour in dream fashion. Upcoming matches against the All Blacks XV and Romania with the latter having World Rankings on the line.
Portugal scored the only try of the opening half. It came on 27 minutes with Rodrigo Marta benefiting from the bounce of the ball from a kick from Samuel Marques. The try was unconverted and gave Portugal a 5-3 after Santiago Álvarez had opened the scoring from a penalty minutes earlier.
The second-half started disastrously for Los Teros. In attempting a jackal, Manuel Ardao was yellow carded by referee James Doleman. Marques took the opportunity to land a penalty for the Portuguese. Os Lobos were 8-3 ahead but they would not score further points.
Uruguay were down to 14 men, losing the match by five points and lost their captain, Manuel Leindekar following a knock to the head. Los Teros needed character and they found it. Álvarez landed a penalty to make it a two point deficit.
Then came the play of the match as replacement prop Francio Súarez scored a solo try from a 60 meter run. He burst a tackle and then broke attempted tackles from Nuno Sousa Guedes and Samuel Marques. Álvarez converted from wide.
Manuel Ardao and replacement Manuel Diana were both causing havoc as jackals in the second-half. Uruguay gained solid field position and won penalties as a result. Ardao came away with Uruguay’s second try, doing so from a pick-and-go.
Sixteen minutes remained after Ardao’s try. Uruguay were comfortably ahead but were not doing yet. Los Teros continued to look to create opportunities. Felipe Etcheverry put in a box kick which Bautista Basso chased and out leaped Nuno Sousa Guedes to gather. Basso then ran 40 meters to score.
Uruguay’s win in Lisbon has given the South Americans the maximum gain in World Rankings because the win was by 16+ points. Combined with the USA falling to Georgia earlier on in the day, Uruguay have risen from 19th to 15th.
The change sees Uruguay overtaking Tonga, Chile, Samoa and the USA. This critically sees Uruguay now improving from the fourth band to the third band for the Rugby World Cup 2027 draw. World Rankings will be used as seeding with those ranked 13th to 18th having an advantage due to having an opponent from the lower band (presently Tonga, Canada, Portugal, Romania, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe if Samoa qualify).
Uruguay now have a simple equation to retain their spot in the third band for the Rugby World Cup 2027 draw. In order to so so, Uruguay must avoid a defeat against Romania by 15 or more points. The match between Romania and Uruguay will be played in two weeks time in Bucharest.
- It was the first match between Portugal and Uruguay since 2012.
- Justo Ferrario (CE), Jean Cotarmanac’h (SH), Francisco González Capdevila (FB) all debuted for Uruguay.
PORTUGAL (8)
TRY – R Marta (27′)
PEN – S Marques 1/1 (41′)
RC – S Lopes
URUGUAY (26)
TRY – F Suárez (58′); M Ardao (64′); B Basso (76′)
CON – S Álvarez 1/2 (59′); Cotarmanac’h 0/1
PEN – S Álvarez 3 (21′, 48′, 70′)
YC – M Ardao (41′)
PORTUGAL
1 Cody Thomas, 2 Luka Begic, 3 Adel da Cunha, 4 Guilherme Costa, 5 Pedro Ferreira, 6 Francisco Almeida, 7 Nicolás Martíns, 8 David Wallis de Cavalho, 9 Samuel Marques, 10 Hugo Aubry, 11 Vincent Pinto, 12 Tomás Appleton (capt.), 13 Rodrigo Marta, 14 Raffaele Storti, 15 Nuno Sousa Guedes
Replacements: 16 David Costa, 17 Santiago Lopes, 18 Anthony Alves, 19 Duarte Torgal, 20 Vasco Baptista, 21 Tomás Amado, 22 Guilherme Vasconcelos, 23 Simão Bento
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Perillo, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Reinaldo Piussi, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Manuel Leindekar (capt.), 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Santiago Álvarez, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Juan Manuel Alonso, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Justo Ferrario, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Juan González
Replacements: 16 Joaquín Myszka, 17 Francisco Suárez, 18 Ignacio Péculo, 19 Santiago Civetta, 20 Manuel Diana, 21 Joaquín Suárez, 22 Jean Cotarmanac’h, 23 Francisco González Capdevila
Video: To Follow
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Evan Urruzmendi (France); Kevin Bralley (France)
TMO: Tual Trainini (France)
