Hosts Romania managed to overcome archrivals Russia 13-12 in another captivating match full of error and incident, the final act of the second day of the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest.
In doing so they set the scene for a winner-takes-all clash with the Emerging Springboks next Friday at the Arcul de Triumf Stadium in Bucharest.
The scoreline was indicative of the entire day's play with the South Africans also pipping Italy by a single point, 20-19, and Georgia beating Uruguay, 20-18.
The Russians played with a passion and expertise missing in their opening match against Italy and they attacked without inhibition, although never genuinely threatening the Romanian line. Running the ball at every opportunity and varying their angles of attack, they did force errors from Romania and penalty chances duly followed.
Russia took the lead after just five minutes of what turned out to be the tightest of first halves. Scrum half and playmaker Alexander Yanyuskin stroked his penalty attempt between the posts, but the three-point lead was soon cancelled out by Romania fly half Dan Dumbrava.
An attritional 30 minutes ensued, before Yanyuskin again nudged the Russians ahead 6-3. Dumbrava, however, converted a chance on the stroke of half time to draw the scores level.
After the break the diminutive Yanyuskin scored two more unanswered penalties to hush the home crowd and with little over 10 minutes remaining the away side led 12-6 and looked destined for victory.
However, the turning point came when a penalty was given against Russia near the 10-metre line. The Romanians opted to kick into touch and through several long and well organised drives moved inexorably towards the Russian goalposts before hooker Florin Tasca crashed over for his first international try to mark only his second cap. Dumbrava made no mistake with the conversion and the Romanian crowd went home happy, victors 13-12.
Two other players to have impressed in a new look Romanian team were full back Adrian Barbuliceanu on his international debut and new scrum half Florin Surugiu, who became the first player from the Olympia Bucharest club to gain international honours.