The best was saved until last in round one of Rugby Europe Championship action at the weekend as Germany caused a big shock by defeating Romania on Sunday afternoon.
At the Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark in Heidelberg the hosts, 35 in the world, were the underdogs going into this Pool B match given that Romania are 22 in the world rankings and are going to the Rugby World Cup next year.
However, Germany put in a great performance to win 30-24 and head coach Mark Kuhlmann said: “I am very proud of the boys.
“In the second half we really stuck to our game plan which we maybe did not do so well in the first half.
“We have a talented group of young players in this squad and they fought hard in tricky weather conditions.”
A penalty by stand-off Leo Wolf put Germany 3-0 up after 15 minutes here before a try from Romania No.8 Cristi Boboc which was converted by scrum-half Alin Conache made it 7-6.
Germany are second in the fledgling Pool B standings as Portugal gained a bonus point 47-17 away win in Belgium on Saturday night.
At the Stade Charles Tondreau in Mons, Portugal showed why they are going to the World Cup next year as they put in a slick performance and ran in five tries to two.
The try scorers for Portugal here were centre Rodrigo Marta, scrum-half Samuel Marques, winger Manuel Cardoso Pinto and stand-off Domingos Cabral while, in a game that saw a number of yellow cards, they were also awarded a seven-point penalty try. Marques kicked 20 points too via four penalties and four conversions to give him 25 points for the evening.
For Belgium, who were 23-10 down at the break, hooker Alexandre Raynier and scrum-half Julien Berger scored tries and centre Florian Remue kicked seven points.
Reigning champions Georgia and Spain - World Cup qualifiers like Romania and Portugal - both have five points in Pool A after bonus point wins in Switzerland and the Netherlands respectively at the weekend.
On Sunday, Georgia showed that they are still the team to beat at this level by winning 54-3 at the Stade Municipal in Yverdon-les-Bains under their interim head coach Marco Bortolami.
However, Switzerland can take great credit for the way they took the game to their illustrious visitors in the first half and, indeed, were just 7-3 down at half-time.
In a game that saw both sides receiving one yellow card apiece, Georgia’s try scorers were full-back Otari Metreveli, winger Akaki Tabutsadze, second-row Giorgi Javakhia, No.8 Tornike Jalagonia (2), centre Demur Tapladze (2) and sub Tedo Abzhandadze.
Stand-off Luka Matkava kicked seven conversions and-off Jules Porcher, the captain, kicked a penalty for Switzerland.
The day before, Netherlands and Spain shared 13 tries and 84 points before the visitors came out on top 51-33 at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam.
Centre Iñaki Mateu, second-row Ignacio Piñeiro Molla, centre Samuel Ezeala and winger Alberto Molina (2) scored tries for Spain in a breathless first period with stand-off Gonzalo Vinuesa, who was later named player of the match but also injured, kicking nine points.
It was 34-12 at the interval, the home side’s tries coming from wingers Te Campbell and Bjorn Dolman and stand-off Vikas Meijer converting one of them.
Netherlands actually ‘won’ the second half 19-17, but Spain’s lightning first 40 minutes had set them up for a comfortable victory.
For the home side, who had a yellow card and a 20-minute red card in the second half, they scored tries via back-row Tim De Jong, Dolman and sub Oliva Sialau with Meijer and Dolman kicking conversions.
By Gary Heatly
