History was made at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago del Chile on Saturday. For the first time ever, Los Cóndores defeated Romania in a rugby test match. The 40-16 scoreline was Chile’s first victory in three attempts against the Eastern Europeans.
Played in front of almost 20,000 supporters, Chile overcame the higher ranked Romanians. The victory saw impressive tries from Los Cóndores in both halves.
Hooker Diego Escobar brought back his form for Racing 92 in the Top 14 to score the game’s opening try. His early score was unconverted. Romania’s response came in the form of goal-kicking.
Chile added two tries to build an impressive lead. Winger Nicolás Garafulic and Iñaki Ayarza both scored. The latter of the two had an assist from Lucas Berti which he probably ought to have ran in himself.
The Romanians fought back to add to their two penalties with a first-half try. Debutant Toni Maftei went over to make it a 23-12 scoreline.
The second-half saw a strong start from Romania. Chile’s defense was tested and it came through well. Having weathered the storm, Los Cóndores then flew high. A brilliant break from Nicolás Garafulic culminated with N8 Alfonso Escobar joining his brother on the scoresheet.
Nicolás Garafulic added a second try to ensure Chile came out on top and did so by a record winning margin. The 40-16 victory was bigger than Romania’s 27-11 win over Chile in Santiago in 2019 and the 30-23 win in Bucharest in 2022. It all means that Chile will gain a boost in the World Rankings.
Chile’s historic win over Romania sees another scalp added to the list of Rugby World Cup teams that Chile has beaten. The list includes Canada, USA, Uruguay, Georgia, Romania, Russia and Spain. Hong Kong is also on the list; Hong Kong will debut at Rugby World Cup 2027.
| SCORING |
CHILE (40)
TRY – D Escobar, N Garafulic 2, I Ayarza, A Escobar
CON – S Videla (3)
PEN – S Videla (3)
ROMANIA (16)
TRY – T Maftei, T Boldor
PEN – A Conache (2)
| LINE-UPS |
CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 Iñaki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Clemente Saavedra, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Lucas Berti, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Iñaki Ayarza, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Cristóbal Game
Replacements: 16 Salvador Lues, 17 Norman Aguayo, 18 Matías Dittus, 19 Bruno Sáez, 20 Augusto Villanueva, 21 Juan Cruz Reyes, 22 Nicolás Saab, 23 Santiago Valenzuela
ROMANIA
1 Alexandru Sarin, 2 Tudor Butnariu, 3 Gheorghe Gajion, 4 Adrian Moțoc, 5 Andrei Mahu, 6 Cristi Boboc, 7 Matthew Tweddle, 8 Nicolas Immelman, 9 Alin Conache, 10 Tudor Boldor, 11 Taliaʻuli Sikuea, 12 Fonovai Tagimana, 13 Antonio Mitrea, 14 Toni Maftei, 15 Ovidiu Neagu
Replacements: 16 Ștefan Buruiana, 17 Iulian Hartig, 18 Thomas Crețu, 19 Yanis Horvat, 20 Vlad Neculau, 21 Vladut Bocanet, 22 Alexandru Bucur, 23 Romeo Corrado-Ștețco
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
Video: To Follow
| MATCH OFFICIALS |
Referee: Federico Vedovelli (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Francisco Gonzalez (UY); Gonzalo de Achaval (AR)
TMO: Marcelo Pilaro (AR)
| HISTORY vs (2019-2025) |
07-05-2025 – Chile 40-16 Romania (Santiago, CL)
11-05-2022 – Romania 30-23 Chile (Bucharest, RO)
06-08-2019 – Chile 11-27 Romania (Valparaíso, CL)
| HEAD TO HEAD vs (2019-2025) |
Romania Wins: 2
Chile Wins: 1
The post Chile Write Rugby History With First Win over Romania appeared first on Americas Rugby News.
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