Romania beat Brazil by a single point this evening, winning 22-21 in Jundiaí. The result was secured via a missed conversion attempt from Josh Reeves. The unsuccessful attempt from the right touchline would be what stopped Brazil from upsetting one of the traditional RWC teams.

Reeves would not only be involved in the final act of the match but it would also be his boot which would open the scoring. The 3-0 lead would be just the beginning though as in the 16th minute Reeves would land a conversion, doing so for a try from hooker Wilton Rebolo from a rolling maul.

Romania looked to their roots to open their scoring. They would take-on Brazil in the scrum and demolish the South Americans. N8 Cristi Chirica grounded the ball and Florin Vlaicu added the extras.

With half-time approaching Brazil was on the back foot. Yet having succeeded in withstanding pressure The home side would turn it into a penalty in their favor. Reeves stepped up to land his second and give Brazil a 13-7 lead at the interval.

On the other side of half-time Brazil would add three more points. Reeves’ third penalty gave Os Tupis a nine point lead. It was the moment which woke up Romania and they would go on to dominate until late in the match.

With Brazil retreating rapidly they would find themselves a player down. Yellow carded was tight head Jardel Vettorato and without him Romania would capitalize, through Ovidiu Cojocaru, and Florin Vlaicu who scored his 13th test try in what was his 120th cap.

Yet there was controversy. Vlaicu’s conversation of the second try was ruled to have been a miss. Vlaicu was clearly not impressed and replays indicated that the attempt did appear to have been a successful conversion.

Regardless of whether the decision had been correct of not the scores were now standing at 19-16 to the Eastern Europeans. Vlaicu would add a penalty to take Romania out to a six point lead.

Then with time up Brazil would be awarded a penalty mirroring that from last weekend against Spain. They again kicked for the corner but this time would maintain control of the ball. Two further penalties were also kicked to the corner. Eventually a score would come with Lucas Tranquez scoring in the right corner.

The pressure was on Reeves to slot the winning points.He struck the ball very well only for it to drift to the right and with it let Romania off the hook.

The competitive match underlines the growth of international rugby. Neither country will compete at RWC 2019 though both will be contenders to qualify for RWC 2023. Additional fixtures between the sides should be high on the priority list for the next RWC cycle.

SCORING

BRAZIL (21)

Try: Rebolo, Tranquez

Conversion: Reeves

Penalty: Reeves (3)

ROMANIA (22)

Try: Chirica, Cojocaru and Vlaicu

Conversion: Vlaicu (2)

Penalty: Vlaicu

TEAMS

BRAZIL

1 Lucas Abud, 2 Wilton Rebolo, 3 Jardel Vettorato, 4 Matteo Dell’Acqua, 5 Luiz Vieira, 6 Cléber Dias, 7 Arthur Bergo, 8 André Arruda, 9 Lucas Duque, 10 Josh Reeves, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 de Wet van Niekerk, 15 Daniel Sancery

Replacements: 16 Yan Rosetti, 17 João Talamini, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Gabriel Paganini, 20 Lucas Piero, 21 Laurent Bourda-Couhet, 22 Lucas Tranquez, 23 Lorenzo Massari

ROMANIA

1 Alexandru Savin, 2 Ovidiu Cojocaru, 3 Alexandru Gordas, 4 Ionut Muresan, 5 Marius Antonescu, 6 Mihai Macovei (capt.), 7 Adrian Ion, 8 Cristi Chirica, 9 Florin Surugiu, 10 Daniel Plau, 11 Nicolas Onutu, 12 Florin Vlaicu, 13 Taylor Gontineac, 14 Mihai Lamboiu, 15 Dorin Manole

Replacements: 16 Constantin Pristavita, 17 Eugen Capatina, 18 Cosmin Manole, 19 Johan van Heerden, 20 Marius Iftimicuic, 21 Gabriel Rupanu, 22 Tudor Boldor, 23 Robert Neagu