Belenenses won the Iberian Rugby Cup for the first time in their history this Sunday by beating Santboiana, in Catalonia, 45-15, a result that shows the Portuguese’s huge superiority in the game.
The national champions thus joined the Iberian title of the Portuguese Cup and the Super Cup, which now hold all the contested trophies, and celebrated their first international trophy, after the defeats in the three finals played previously, in 2003/04, 2018/19 and 2020/21.
The Spaniards were still leading 10-3, with an ‘accidental’ attempt from Pau Anguita (18 minutes), but Belenenses took full advantage of the Catalans’ lack of discipline and took numerical advantage in about 20 minutes thanks to two yellow cards for Santboiana reached half time and won 15-10.
After Salvador da Cunha (27) and Miguel Nunes (37) scored in the first half, the second half was one-way, with the Portuguese fully installed in the Spanish midfield, boosted by an André da Cunha (41) in the very first throw.
Manuel Pinto (15 points from three penalties and three transformations), with two accurate penalties (53, 61) brought the score to 10-26, safe from any setbacks, and Belenenses got the necessary rest to ‘walk their superiority to the end of the meeting.
Trials by Pedro Lucas (63), Manuel Worm (70) and José Galamba (77) saw Belenenses ‘shoot’ the scoreboard and Hugo Pichot’s target (80+1) also failed to hit (80+1), as coincidentally as the Spaniards’ first , pinched a triumph of Lisbon that sinned only by sparse.
With its first Iberian Cup, Belenenses succeeds on the list of Portuguese winners of Law, the last national club to win the trophy, in 2015/16.
Still, Spanish clubs continue to gain the upper hand with 26 titles won against 17 for the Portuguese, split between Benfica (four), Law (four), CDUL (three), Cascais (three), Académica (one), Agronomia (one) and Belenenses (An).
Source: DN
