Portugal now one step away

The Lobos of Portugal beat Morocco's Lions of the Atlas 16-15 in Lisbon to win the second leg of their World Cup qualifier and thus move a step closer to winning the final spot in France.

What a match!  Morocco arrived in Lisbon needing victory by six points or more.  It looked as if Portugal were home and dry but with a quarter of an hour to go Morocco got a converted try to pull back to a deficit of just one point.  One more converted try would see them on to the next round -- to play Uruguay.  It was not to be in those agonising last 15 minutes.

Morocco scored first.  After Portugal had missed a penalty attempt they goaled one to lead 3-0.  The Portuguese attacked, the Lions of the Atlas defended but were penalised and flyhalf Cardoso Pinto, who had scored all ten Portuguese points in their 10-5 first-leg victory, levelled the scores.

Captain and number eight Vasco Uva scored the try which put Portugal ahead -- 10-3 after Pinto's conversion.

That was the score at half-time.

Right from the kick-off for the second half the Moroccans attacked and made the most of a Portuguese attack to score a try.  10-8.

Penalties by Pinto made the score 16-8, and then Morocco's powerful pack drove a maul over the line for a try which Hicham Eziyar converted.  16-15 with a thrilling 15 minutes to play.

Portugal hung on and in fact had the chance to extend their lead but replacement Gonçalo Malheiro missed a penalty kick in injury time.  The final whistle sounded soon afterwards.

Portugal now play, home and away, against Uruguay in March.  The winner of that encounter will go to the 2007 World Cup and join a pool with New Zealand, Scotland, Italy and Romania.  Portugal have not before been to a World Cup.

For Portugal the Argentinian prop Cristian Spachuck was back from his neck injury but David Mateus was out with an injured thigh and veteran Antonio Aguilar, who plays for Mont-de-Marsan in France's Pro D2 was still out injured.

Morocco's Nassim Arif was unconvincing in the first leg and was replaced by Hicham Eziyar.  The forwards were reinforced by the return of Pau prop Mohamed Ben Bouhout.  Jalil Narjissi, the hooker and usual prop, was not down to play last week also but he played.  This week he is not down again as Agen have hooker problems -- not that the clubs prevent the players from playing in World Cup matches!

It was a great day of rugby at Estádio Universitário in Lisbon.  It started at 11 in the morning with the little ones before the climactic répechage match.

The scorers:

For Portugal:
Try:  Uva
Con:  Pinto
Pens:  Pinto 3

For Morocco:
Tries:  A.N Other, A.N Other
Con:  Eziyar
Pen:  Eziyar

The teams:

Portugal:  15 Pedro Leal, 14 Pedro Carvalho, 13 Diogo Gama, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Miguel Portela, 10 Cardoso Pinto, 9 Luís Pissarra, 8 Vasco Uva (captain), 7 Juan Severino, 6 Paulo Murinello, 5 Marcello D'Orey, 4 Gonçalo Uva, 3 Rui Cordeiro, 2 João Correia, 1 Cristian Spachuk.

Morocco:  15 Ouajdi Mouhcine, 14 Tallavi, 13 Mihadji Tidjini, 12 Mouad Labbi, 11 Gharib Chahid, 10 Hicham Eziyar, 9 Kamal Essaoui, 8 Abdellatif Boutati (captain), 7 Faycal Boukhanoussa, 6 Housni Hicham, 5 Younes Ho, 4 Hamid Arif, 3 Mohamed Ben Bouhout, 2 Abdelkafi Abachri, 1 Mohamed Gouasmia.

Referee:  Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges:  Richard Hughes, Huw F Lewis (both Wales)

Namibia get a leg up

Solid victory in Windhoek

In the first leg of their World Cup qualifier against Morocco, Namibia gave themselves a great chance of going to France next year when they beat Morocco 25-7 in Windhoek.

The victory means that the Lions of the Atlas will have to win by at least 19 points when the two teams meet in Casablanca on 11 November.

The winner of this two-legged qualifier, will go to France.  The loser goes into répechage and plays the loser of the two-legged qualifier between Georgia and Portugal for the right to play Uruguay and qualify that way.

From the start it was a game of contrasting styles.  The Moroccans wanted to play through their forward while the Namibians wanted to get the ball wide to their speedsters.

After the Lions of the Atlas had started in fiery fashion, the Biltongboere got on top and after Emile Wessels had missed with a penalty attempt the Stellenbosch flyhalf goaled to give his side a 3-0 lead after 14 minutes.

The Moroccan forwards continued to dominate the line-outs and the loose where Namibia lost several turn-overs.  It was a physical battle.

Just before the break centre Lu-Wayne Botes grabbed a dropped pass and fed wing Guillaume Nel who raced ahead, drew the defence and gave to fullback Heini Bock who came dashing up on the outside.  Bock scored under the posts.

After the Lions had missed a second penalty attempt, Wessels goaled his second when the visitors were penalised for stamping.

Leading 13-0 the Biltongboere became their worst enemies when Irish referee Simon McDowell sent first scrumhalf Pieter Rossouw to the sin bin for a late tackle and then captain Kees Lensing joined him for stamping.  The latter decision incensed the home crowd.

Against 13 men the Lions drove hard at the Namibian line but the Namibians withstood attack after attack till the referee awarded a penalty try against them.  Thomas Garçia converted this time to make the score 13-7, and the home side was under pressure.  13 brave men withstood the onslaught and the big boot of Wessels drove the attackers back time and again, till at last the errant duo returned to the fray.

Namibia welcomed them back and it was the visitors' turn to defend, possibly dispirited by their failed attacks.

Quick ball from the loose enabled experienced Corné Powell to feed No.8 Jacques Burger who scored a try which Wessels converted.  20-7.

Just before the final whistle Botes chipped.  Replacement Rodger Thompson gathered, sidestepped and scored in the corner.

Scorers:

For Namibia:
Tries:  Bock, Burger, Thompson
Cons:  Wessels 2
Pens:  Wessels 2

For Morocco:
Try:  penalty
Con:  Garçia

Teams:

Namibia:  15 Heini Bock, 14 Guillaume Nel, 13 Lu-Wayne Botes, 12 Corné Powell, 11 Melrick Africa, 10 Emile Wessels, 9 Pieter Rossouw, 8 Jacques Burger, 7 Herman Lintvelt, 6 Tinus du Plessis, 5 Uakazuvaka Kazombiaze, 4 Heino Senekal, 3 Johannes Redelinghuys, 2 Johannes Meyer, 1 Kees Lensing (captain)
Replacements:  16 Morné Louw, 17 Gideon van der Berg, 18 Nico Genis, 19 Schalk van der Merwe, 20 Eugene Jantjies, 21 Rodger Thompson, 22 Adriaan du Plessis
Coaches:  Johannes Venter, Eden Meyer, Michael

Morocco:  15 Aziz Chahid, 14 Mounir Elhajji, 13 Eziyar Jawad, 12 Derraz Younès, 11 Boujouala Boubker, 10 Thomas Garçia, 9 Aissaoui Kamal, 8 Abdellatif Boutaty, 7 Mathias Garcia, 6 Hicham Housni, 5 Arif Hamid, 4 Hicham Laoni, 3 Samir Amechtane, 2 Jalil Narjissi (captain), 1 Mohamed Gouasmia.
Replacements:  Abdelkafi Abachri, Mounir El Hamzaoui, Mounir Jaoui, Karim Benherrou, Mohamed Loukrassi, Eziyar Hicham, Arif Nassim.
Coaches:  Bruno Barrero, Francis Was, Youssef Sridi

Referee:  Simon McDowell (Ireland)