Resume of the final of “Divisão de Honra” 1/5/2009 Agronomia-Direito

It was a very good game between both teams, well played and very emotional. The game started with a lot of pressure by Agronomia, but it was Direito who opened the score with a penalty at the minute 4 with a penalty (3 points) scored by scum-half Pedro Leal. 3 minutes later Direito scored its first try of the day, after a good kick picked up by wing Aderito Esteves, who scored Direito’s first try in the final. After the conversion from number 9 Pedro Leal, Direito led the score 10 to 0. Minute 11, Australian born full-back Joe Gardner kicked his first penalty of the day, which reduced the score to 10-3. Agronomia started to put more pressure in the defence of Direito and after a big mistake by Direito’s full-back, fly-half Duarte Cardoso Pinto scored the first try for Agronomia that after the conversion from Joe Gardner putted the teams together in the score board, 10-10, with 20 minutes gone. The crowd had to wait 15 minutes to see the score changing again with another penalty from Agronomia but only 5 minutes later Direito draw the result again, 13-13 the result achieved before Portuguese referee Joao Mourinha weaselled for half time.

Agronomia came in its best in the second half and capitalized its domain with a try at minute 3 scored by South-African Jack le Roux. Conversion missed and the score was 18-13. But this was the Aderito Esteves day and after just 4 minutes Direito and the wing made their second try of the day. With a successful conversion, Direito led 20-18.
Minute 28, after a series of rucks, veteran Miguel Portela got in a situation of one-to-one with Joe Gardner and was happier than the other, scoring a try that gave Direito the feeling that the victory was near. The conversion was missed. Agronomia knew that they could not let Direito get way in the board and came with all its strengths to score, putting a lot of pressure in Direito’s defence, but a huge mistake by Duarte Cardoso Pinto with a pass to number 6 Luis Portela saw the Portuguese man run about 80 metres to the try-line and score the final try from Direito, with 9 minutes remaining to the final weasel. 32-18 was now the score and it was an almost impossible task for Agronomia to win this game, but with a spirit hart they did not wanted to give the game so easily to the black-and-red man so with only one minute to go they scored their third try of the day by South-African Conrad Stikling, the score now 32-25. In the injury-time Agronomia still had one chance to score but inside the 22-line of Direito, they lost possession of the ball and Direito kicked the ball out, ending the game and becoming for the 6th time in 10 years Champions of Portugal.