Portugal led against Australia for around fifteen minutes during a Rugby World Cup match. This is the good memory that the thousands of Portuguese supporters will remember from the match which took place on Sunday October 1 in Saint-Etienne. For the rest, sporting logic was respected and the Wallabies, more powerful than the (too) generous playing Lobos, won (34-14).
This expected victory for the Australians will probably not save their World Cup. Previously beaten by Fiji and Wales, Eddie Jones’ men, returning to a misleading second place in the Group C standings, have little chance of seeing the quarter-finals.
On Sunday, the Wallabies first opened the scoring thanks to Ben Donaldson, who passed a penalty obtained by his forwards, dominating in the scrum (3-0). But very quickly, Portugal tried to compensate for its power deficit with bold initiatives from their three-quarters. Whirling, Patrice Lagisquet’s men thrill the start of the match
Three tries in seven minutes
In the 12th minute, the Portuguese audacity was rewarded by a try from Pedro Bettencourt, who flattened it into a corner after a nice movement from a closed scrum, where, this time, the Wolves resisted the force of opposing pack. They then lead 7-3.
But after giving his team the advantage, Bettencourt will penalize them heavily, by being excluded ten minutes for a shoulder blow (15th) in the face of an opposing player. Now inferior, the Lobos become crumbly in defense, which their opponent takes advantage of immediately, and on three occasions.
In seven minutes, the Australians scored three tries by Richie Arnold (19th), Dave Porecki (22nd) and Angus Bell (26th), each time on a similar pattern: a powerful breakthrough, through a Portuguese defense that was too light, too slow. When the referee whistles for halftime, they are ahead on the scoreboard: 24-7.
Returning from the locker room, in front of an audience totally committed to their cause, Patrice Lagisquet’s players move forward with the same weapons, speed, hooks and quick runs to try to slip through the cracks of the opposing defense . But as in the first period, the Lobos regularly came up against the power of the Wallabies. And in the 47th minute, against the run of play, Fraser McReight scored the offensive bonus try for Australia (29-7).
Trompe-l’oeil second place
Nothing to discourage the Wolves, who are not giving up on developing a generous and pleasant game to watch. And paradoxically, it is “Australian style”, all powerful, after a controlled closed scrum, that they manage to score a second try through Rafael Simoes (70th, 29-14). The Wallabies’ response to this affront was quick. Marika Koroibete, Fijian winger recruited by Australia, breaks through the Portuguese defense one last time (74th, 34-14).
Thanks to this victory accompanied by an offensive bonus point (five tries scored), Australia (11 points) regains 2nd place in the standings of Group C in Fiji (10 points). But this mathematical advantage is an illusion, because the Fijians still have one match to play, on October 8, against Portugal. The Wallabies have finished with the first phase matches. The Flying Fijians will therefore only need one more point in the standings in a week to ultimately overtake the Wallabies, whom they beat (22-15) on September 17, and move towards the quarter-finals. If this scenario is confirmed, Eddie Jones and his troops will just have to head to the nearest airport and return, head down, to the country. There, a major challenge awaits them: rebuilding a team capable of performing well at the 2027 World Cup, which, for them, will take place at home.
