Storti's Late Double Seals Portugal's 36-15 Win Over Chile in Lisbon

The scoreboard said 36-15, and in the end it looked comfortable. For most of the afternoon in Lisbon, it was anything but.

Chile came to the Estadio do Restelo with a plan and, for forty minutes, it worked. Matias Garafulic collected a delightful offload from Felipe Mendez and raced over in the left corner after five minutes, and suddenly the visitors were in front and the home crowd was quiet. Portugal's answer came fast, two minutes later, when Manuel Cardoso Pinto seized on a perfectly executed grubber kick from scrum-half Samuel Marques to score. But Chile would not go away. Raimundo Martinez crossed for their second try, and when David Wallis touched down for Portugal, the sides went in at half-time separated by two points, 17-15, with the game still very much alive.

It stayed that way for a long time after the break. The second half took a while to produce points, and the longer it went without them, the more the tension grew around the Restelo. Then, on 57 minutes, Raffaele Storti found the space. The winger read the play, took his chance against the run of play, and Portugal had breathing room at last. Andre da Cunha added another try ten minutes later, the beneficiary of a kind bounce, and the match was bending Portugal's way.

Storti finished it himself. With the clock gone and Chile trying to run the ball out from deep, a low pass from Bustamante to Garafulic was fumbled, and the winger was there to accept the gift, completing his double and putting the seal on a five-tries-to-two win.

There was more to celebrate than the scoreline. Cardoso Pinto and centre Rodrigo Marta, the Top 14's second-top try-scorer with Pau, both earned their 50th caps for Portugal on the day, and the win was Os Lobos' third from four games in the Nations Cup. Captain Jose Madeira, speaking afterwards, kept the focus on the crowd and on what comes next. "It meant a lot to play in front of our supporters," he said. "Chile are a good side who caused us problems, but we're looking to get better and better against Samoa next week."

Chile's captain, Santiago Videla, was honest about the gap between the sides and about his own team's task. "We knew Portugal are a very good side," he said. "We knew our roles and responsibilities but we need to see where we can get better for next week," when Chile face Spain.

The result keeps Portugal firmly in the running in the Nations Cup, and the manner of it will have pleased their coaches as much as the margin. They were tested, they were behind, they were made to wait — and then they finished the job with three second-half tries, two of them late. Samoa, their next opponents, will have watched that finish closely.