Danielli's late tries saved his side's bacon in New Zealand
Scotland 34-24 Romania
Jack Leahy
Sports Editor
A late brace from winger Simon Danielli saw Scotland claim the most unlikely of bonus points against a battling Romania at Invercargail.
Raudhrí Jackson, selected at out-half ahead of Dan Parks, opened the scoring with a simple penalty before scrum-half Mike Blair finished off a flowing move for the game’s opening try. Joe Ansbro added a solo effort to give the Scots a dominant 15-3 lead after only 20 minutes.
However, the Romanian pack managed to impose their own tempo on the game and the pressure they applied to the Scottish pack resulted in a worryingly high number of penalties. Pressure was eventually converted to points in the form of a Mihaita Lazar drive-over try. 18-11 HT.
The half-time whistle couldn’t have come soon enough for Andy Robinson’s side, who found themselves well and truly under the thumb of the second-tier minnows. The sides exchanged penalties to leave the score 21-14 before a perfectly executed driving scrum saw number eight Daniel Carpo awarded a try via the Television Match Official.
Leading 24-21 with 15 minutes to go, the Romanian challenge ended there as Danielli managed to finish off two continuity plays and save the blushes of the tier one nation.
Scotland started well and looked to have the beating of their opponents in the opening stages, touching down early as the heinously underused Ansbro rode a half tackle before feeding Danielli who created space for Blair to run home unopposed.
Danielli was also involved in the next threatening phase of Scottish play as Max Evans collected a misplaced pass and cut through shambolic defending and storming into the Romanian half. He found Danielli on his inside before the Ulster winger, inexplicably, ignored the support of Chris Paterson in a two-on-one situation until fatally late. It was a mistake that he very nearly came to regret.
It seemed to matter little, however, as moments later the ever-maturing Ansbro exploited the foolhardiness of the Romanian midfield’s blitz defence to work his way through four men and touch home. Chris Paterson added the extras.
The gusty conditions made it difficult for the kickers; Paterson failed to convert his side’s first try after the ball fell off the tee mid run-up. The Romanians responded by perpetrating what can only be described as an absolute dismantlement of the Scottish pack, emboldened by their ability to dictate the tempo of the game.
The Oaks’ front eight were clever while limited but, if nothing else, this encounter demonstrated the benefits of old-fashioned forward brawn. On the other side of the pitch, John Barclay was penalised a dangerously high number of times for offences on the ground.
The immense pressure eventually yielded a score in the form of tighthead Lazar’s 39th minute effort as unnecessary penalties and mind-boggling basic errors from Robinson’s charges allowed their battle-hungry opposition back into a game that should have been over after 15 minutes.
The half-time pick-and-go count was telling: Scotland recorded three, Romania 18. The Oaks restarted where they had left off in exploiting the errors that continued to undermine Scotland’s attempts at continuity play.
Having tried and failed to reignite the game early in the second half, coach Robinson decided that enough was enough and the hopelessly ineffective and kick-shy Jackson was replaced by seasoned campaigner Parks.
It was a move that brought no discernible benefit, however, as Parks only succeeded in finding the full with his first two drop outs. Paterson’s wind-defying penalty was cancelled out then usurped by two efforts from Dimofte as the minnows began to smell blood. No sooner did Scotland put points on the board than they found themselves scrambling to defend their line.
To describe Scotland’s forward play as ‘fractured’ would be to afford it more structure than it really had, and the bouncing confidence of the Romanians tore through a not untalented pack with worrying ease. More mistakes cost the Six Nations side territory and points as every set-piece became a showcase of Romanian forward thrust.
And indeed it was an unforced error from Chris Cusiter – knocking on 5m out with no pressure – that gave Romania the platform to really make this tie interesting. The stadium erupted as Carpo wriggled his way to the ground after a textbook driving scrum had Scotland burried behind their own line. Dimofte missed the conversion, but his side were still ahead, for the first time, 24-21.
Alas, the dream ended there. While Romania far outperformed their more illustrious opponents for most of the game, when Scotland played their best they were ultimately far too good.
Number eight Richie Vernon, anonymous to this point, managed to find space on the wing after a third bout of creative brilliance from the mercurial Evans to start the move.Vernon found Danielli on his inside shoulder and the winger made no mistake in touching down to eradicate the lingering danger that his earlier miskate would cost his side the match.
With less than three minutes left on the clock, the Scots scored their fourth try as the blueprint was finally realised: slick continuity play was taken towards the Romanian line by the evergreen Paterson, whose offload to Vernon left Danielli with the simplest of finishes in the corner. The celebrations that greeted this try were certainly those of relief.
Every World Cup has its shock and, while it certainly didn’t look that way for a while, we are somehow still awaiting ours. Romania will scarcely take heart from having lost a game they deserved to win, but solace will nonetheless be offered in the form of affirmation of progression. For Scotland, things need to improve fast, as the even bigger Georgian, English, and Argentinian packs will punish the same kind of errors with greater bravado and efficiency.
Despite their somehow emerging with five points from this encounter, this game will not be remembered as a Scottish victory. For the history of rugby to be just, this one has to go down as the one that got away for Romania.
