Georgia scores late try to deny Portugal a first Rugby World Cup win in thrilling draw
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TOULOUSE, France (AP) — Georgia denied Portugal a first-ever win at the Rugby World Cup by scoring a 78th-minute try to snatch an 18-18 draw on Saturday.
Replacement hooker Tengizi Zamtaradze’s try from the back of a rolling maul wasn’t converted by Luka Matkava, and Portugal had one more chance for a landmark victory when Georgia gave away a penalty for obstruction off the restart.
With the clock in the red, fullback Nuno Guedes pulled his kick wide.
Still, Portugal gained its first points at a Rugby World Cup in its sixth match in the tournament, having lost all four pool games in 2007 and opened this World Cup with a 28-8 defeat to a second-string Wales.
Os Lobos recovered from being 13-0 down after 32 minutes on the back of two blistering tries by winger Raffaele Storti.
They didn’t concede another point until Zamtaradze’s try.
Georgia’s record of winning at least one match at every Rugby World Cup since 2007 is under threat now, with games against Fiji and Wales to come.
This was Portugal’s best chance of recording a maiden World Cup win and they almost took it, even dominating the traditionally powerful Georgian pack in the second half as they fought their way back into a frantic game.
Storti — playing in place of suspended teammate Vincent Pinto — provided the fireworks out wide with tries in the 34th and 57th minutes, both from long range and both similar in the way he burst through and left would-be tacklers flailing in his wake.
His first will be an early contender for try of the tournament for how he came in off the right wing with a sidestep, taking out three covering Georgians in the process, and then found a gap between Gela Aprasidze and Vladimer Chachanidze before sprinting 50 meters to go over in the right corner and make it 13-5.
At age 22 and with 18 tries in 25 tests, Storti could be a star of the future.
This was a match between the top two teams in the second-tier of Europe’s rugby countries, below the Six Nations. Portugal hadn’t beaten Georgia in their previous 18 attempts, including losing the final of the Rugby Europe Championship in March.
Painfully, it is now a 19-game winless run against their biggest rival though flyhalf Jerónimo Portela was happy to have “made history.”
“It was very close — the last kick I really thought we could win,” Portela said. “We made some mistakes, we will look at it and we will do better next time.
“We have worked since June to win this game, we have to keep going.”
Georgia raced into its early lead by dispensing with the team's usual approach of predominantly using its big forwards, and instead sent the ball out wide. Winger Akaki Tabutsadze took an offload by Davit Niniashvili and crossed down the right wing in the second minute for his 15th try in 34 tests. Abzhandadze converted and added two penalties for the Lelos, who kept squandering try chances.
Then, they fell apart after conceding Storti's first try and failed to take advantage of Portugal prop Francisco Fernandes' yellow card in the 37th for a no-arms tackle on hooker Shalva Mamukashvili. A bunker review confirmed there would be no red for Fernandes — who has 23 sin-binnings for club and country across his career — even though there appeared to be a slight clash of heads.
By the hour mark, Georgia had missed 20 tackles and, shamefully for its grizzled pack, conceded a penalty at a scrum despite having the put-in.
“Rugby isn’t one half,” Georgia coach Levan Maisashvili said. "We played really hard in the first half but in the second half Portugal dominated everywhere.
“We know their team but we didn’t execute our opportunities when we had a chance to play. We lost a lot of balls today, lost our breakdown. Portugal played very well in the second half.”
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