LONDON: Fiji and Romania recorded their first victories of the World Cup on Tuesday as the two teams began to bid farewell to the tournament.

Fiji played their final part in Pool ‘A’ — the group of death — by running in seven tries in a 47-15 win over Uruguay who grabbed their first try of the tournament.

The biggest cheer and wildest celebrations of the night came when Carlos Arboleya, 12 years after Uruguay coach Pablo Lemoine scored their last World Cup try, crashed over the line to be mobbed by all 22 Uruguayan squad members.

In the day’s other game, Florin Vlaicu nervelessly slotted a penalty three minutes from time to lift Romania to the biggest ever comeback win at a World Cup with a 17-15 Pool ‘D’ victory over Canada.

Romania, who have one final match against Italy on Sunday, trailed 15-0 early in the second half until their pack began to smash the Canucks, setting up a grandstand finish in which Vlaicu duly delivered.

“Semi-final won, now we play the final,” Romania’s Welsh coach Lynn Howells said, referring to the Italy match in which an upset would seal automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup.

Published in Dawn, October 8th , 2015

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