Dinamo Bucuresti Reach Quarter Finals

Dinamo Bucuresti reached the quarter-finals of the PARKER PEN SHIELD by beating L'Aquila at the CUS Roma Stadium thanks to an injury time try from international full back Vasile Ghioc today (Sunday, 22 December).
The second leg of the fixture was due to have been played in Bucharest last weekend, but had to be postponed because of a frozen pitch last. The game was then transferred to Rome to ensure the fixture could be played.
Having won the away leg in L'Aquila 27-24, the Romanians made it a double on Italian soil by winning their 'home' game 26-24 after coming back from a 17-5 interval deficit.
In the end, Dinamo outscored their Italian rivals by four tries to three, adding three in the second half to clinch a quarter-final clash with French side Castres Olympique.
Dinamo were reduced to 13 men at one stage after having two players sent to the sin-bin at the same time as a L'Aquila man. In fact, Scottish referee Andrew Ireland issued five yellow cards during the match.
Dinamo hooker Stefan Demici was first to go after 17 minutes and L'Aquila's back row man Mirko Biondi was next into the bin after 34 minutes. Then three players went together, Dinamo wing Adrian Voicu and No 8 Catalain Ioan joining L'Aquila outside half German Cagnolo on the touchlines a minute before the break.
That left both teams down to 13 men for a time. Shortly after L'Aquila were restored to 14 men, their wing Mauro Mastropietro ran in their third try to extend their lead to 24-5.
But the Romanians galvanised themselves when they were returned to full strength and tries from Voicu and two from Ghioc allowed them to claw their way back into the game.
Ghioc's double strike came three minutes before time and then four minutes into injury time, allowing outside half Serban Guranescu to land the final conversion to win the match.
Dinamo will have home advantage over Castres in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on the weekend of 10/11/12 January. They will travel to France for the second leg the following weekend.

Scorers: Dinamo Bucuresti: Tries: V Ghioc 2, C Hildan, A Voicu; Cons: S Guranescu 3. L'Aquila: Tries: M Acuna, M Mastropietro, penalty try; Cons: G Cognolo 2, M Acuna; Pen: G Cognolo.