Uruguay and Romania Ends in a draw

There was no winner in Montevideo on Saturday. Jordan Way called full-time with the scores level at 36-36. The outcome means that Uruguay and Romania both have one draw and one loss from their respective opening two fixtures in the 2026 World Rugby Nations Cup.

The contest got off to a roaring start. Uruguay scored within the opening two minutes with Felipe Arcos Pérez slicing through the defense to score with Manuel Diana providing the assist. Frenchman Juan Cotarmanac’h converted for a 7-0 lead.

Uruguay’s following points were delayed; indeed, the shape match was forever changed as Romania ran in three tries in nine minutes. The three tries were three of Romania’s five tries in the contest. Fijian Iliesa Tiqe scored for Romania on 8 minutes, Tongan Tevita Manumua scored on 12 minutes and Canadian Logan Weidner scored on 17 minutes.

The tries were a mixture of speed and strength. Two of the three tries were converted and they followed an early penalty. It meant Romania were in control leading the match 22-7 after Alin Conache converted Weidner’s score.

Los Teros ended the second quarter with their second try. A strong carry from Manuel Diana had Romania retreating and unable to reform their defense on time. Joaquín Suárez took the opportunity to dart over from scrum-half.

Uruguay followed to make it back-to-back tries. The third try by the South Americans was the first of what would be a hat-trick scored by Joaquín Myszka. The hooker scored on 23 minutes from a lineout to maul move.

Trailing 17-22, with under one minute left on the clock in the opening half, Los Teros went for a try rather than quick a regulation penalty for three points. They were unable to capitalize which saw half-time called with a five point gap. Had Uruguay taken the points then perhaps the result would have been a three point win.

Romania were the first to score in the second-half. Hooker Ștefan Marko Buruiană responded to his opposite by scoring on 49 minutes and give the Stejarii a twelve point ahead. It lasted four minutes as Joaquín Myszka scored his second on 53 minutes. Myszka completed his hat-trick with another lineout to maul push-over try.

Los Teros will not watch the match video with smiles. Their defense failed again as Tevita Manumua scored his second try for Romania. Comanche converted for a 36-29 lead with eleven minutes remaining.

Uruguay got back deep into Romanian territory quickly. From there they charged ahead with the forwards and back combining. Flanker Manuel Ardao capitalized by scoring from a pick-and-go. With the difficult conversion on target the scores were level at 36-36.

Neither team scored again. The full-time whistle sees Romania now turning their attention to Samoa. Los Teros turn their attention to Hong Kong. Both matches will be played at the Estadio Charrúa on Saturday, July 18.

MATCH NOTES

Joaquín Myszka scored a hat-trick (3 tries) for Uruguay.
Tevita Manumua scored two tries for Romania.
Alfonso Vidal and Francisco Landauer debuted for Uruguay.

SCORING

URUGUAY (39)
TRY – F Perez (2′), J Suarez (19′), J Myszka 3 (23′, 53′, 64′), M Ardao (72′)
CON – J Cotarmanac’h 3 (3′, 65′, 73′)

ROMANIA (39)
TRY – I Tiqe (8′), T Manumua 2 (12′, 68′), L Weidner (17′), Ș Buruiană (49′)
CON – A Conache 4 (9′, 18′, 49′, 69′)
PEN – A Conache (7′)
YC – A Savin (64′), V Neculau (70′)

LINE-UPS

URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Joaquín Myszka, 3 Reinaldo Piussi, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Felipe Aliaga (capt.), 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Joaquin Suárez, 10 Jean Cotarmanac’h, 11 Ignacio Álvarez Akiki, 12 Juan Manuel Alonso, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Francisco González Capdevilia, 15 Juan González

Replacements: 16 Germán Kigel, 17 Mateo Perillo, 18 Lucas Porcelli, 19 Manuel Rosmarino, 20 Arturo Ten Hoever, 21 Ignacio Rodriguez Bosch, 22 Francisco Landauer, 23 Alfonso Vidal

ROMANIA
1 Iulian Hartig, 2 Ștefan Marko Buruiană, 3 Cosmin Manole, 4 Logan Weidner, 5 Andrei Mahu, 6 Nicolaas Immelman 7 Cristi Boboc (capt.), 8 Adrian Mitu, 9 Alin Conache, 10 Hinckley Vaovasa, 11 Iliesa Tiqe, 12 Jason Tomane, 13 Nicolas Onuțu, 14 Tevita Manumua, 15 Marius Simionescu

Replacements: 16 Tudor Butnariu, 17 Alexandru Savin 18 Jean-Pierre Smith, 19 Vlad Neculau, 20 Keanan Murray, 21 Iacopo Bianchi, 22 Gabriel Rupanu, 23 Mihai Graure

MATCH VIDEO