Romanian Rugby

[Big Ewis]

hey dragos, sorry to be a little bit of a thick tourist, but how's the scene in Romania right now ? Tbh I only watch Georgia or Romania during some of the tour tests, but rarely, and at the RWC, but that's never really any good because they're up against Tier 1 nations like England, so, it's not all that telling about what those teams can do in a more suited context.
I love to see there's good talent, but just not enough throughout the XV. But how's the scene, like, isn't Rugby something of the older generations maybe ? Like the newer kids are more into football and "attractive" sports, like maybe also some basketball ? Isn't Rugby sort of kids' older brother/uncle's thing now ?
How many ppl know about Rugby around ? I'm sure it's obviously more known amongst city folks more, like in Bucharest and big cities. Is it a social class thing there too like elsewhere, like, the richer casts play it and it's the gentleman's sport ?

 

[dragos03]

Well, rugby has always been a niche sport here and support is limited. I wouldn't say it an old men's sport though, quite the opposite. Today most fans seems to be 20 to 40 years old but you also see a lot of kids with their parents in stadiums. The matches in Bucharest also attract people who don't really follow sports because of the very relaxed and fair play attitude in the stadium (for example my girlfriend enjoys watching games live even if she would never do it on TV).

Like in most places, rugby is mostly followed by the richer class but it seems to be most popular among the new middle class that's slowly growing in Romania and not among the elites. It's mostly the poor who play it though, the rich tend to send their kids to expensive sports like tennis nowadays. Overall, support for rugby has been slowly but steady growing in the last years but it will never be able to compete with football. Around the country, it tends to be popular in cities that have crap football teams (like Baia Mare or Timisoara).

 

[Big Ewis]

haha, "if you're not good enough at football, play that Rugby thingy". Interesting, I find Romania very interesting as an entity overall, not just Rugby. And I'm not sure why, but God decided to give Romania the most beautiful women. He went like "mmmmm let's go wiiiiiith.....mmm........Romania ? Yeah, Romania will have the hottest ladies".
You're a mixture between Western and Eastern Europe; Latin and Slavic if I'm not mistaken; but are a cohesive entity at the same time. I've met and know of very interesting ppl from there.

So out of curiosity, what would you say are the top 3, maybe top 5 popular sports there ? No. 1 is football, okay, but after that ?

 

[dragos03]

About the ladies, I think that most of Eastern Europe has been blessed with a lot of beauties.

It's hard to make a top of the most popular sports, all of them are minor except for football. I would say that handball, tennis and even gymnastics are more popular than rugby but that's just a guess.

 

[Big Ewis]

About the ladies, I think that most of Eastern Europe has been blessed with a lot of beauties.

nah, Romanians are the best I've seen. Some of those other ones are too cold !
So football continues to be the absolute plague of the (sports) world, doesn't it ?

Anyways, Romania's playing the US, Canada and Japan this coming November. That should be interesting, will definitely check some of those out.

 

[racer0bv]

imo the top is: football, tennis(on a high due to the performance spike of Simona Halep), handball (the municipalities invest a lot in this sport, also Romania U18 has won the world ch), rugby and basketball.

 

[dragos03]

Some big news:
- Haralambie (Harry) Dumitras has been elected as the new president of the Romanian Rugby Federation (FRR)
- Romania U19 - Scotland U19 20-15 - this is a surprising result since Romanian youth squads are usually weak. This is the best win of the Oaklings in many years and hopefully a sign that the great reform of the youth system that was started a few years ago is starting to show some results. A funny detail is that the Scottish Rugby Union official page claims they lost to the Romanian U20 squad to make it look a bit better . The match can be watched here:


Superliga results

Playoff:
Farul Constanta - Baia Mare 27-12 - a shocking result, Baia Mare were undefeated this season. Full match here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtqTdq9zd3k
RCM Timisoara - CSM Bucuresti 25-9

Playout:
U Cluj - Steaua 23-25

Baia Mare and RCM Timisoara have qualified to the semifinals. This weekend the other two semifinalists will be decided in these matches:
CSM Bucuresti vs Dinamo
Farul Constanta vs Steaua

 

[dragos03]

Shocking result in the first Superliga quarterfinal today: Dinamo has won 13-12 away at CSM Bucuresti and will play against Baia Mare in the semifinals. This is a great result for the club with the lowest budget in the league.

It seems that the final score of the Romania vs Scotland U19 match was 20-10 (not 20-15 as previously reported).

 

[Draggs]

Good result for the U19 then!
Still disappointed the senior side couldn't turn Scotland over in 2011.
I wish we would play Romania and some other countries, it's very boring seeing the four nations + pacific islands every year.

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Good result for the U19 then!
Still disappointed the senior side couldn't turn Scotland over in 2011.
I wish we would play Romania and some other countries, it's very boring seeing the four nations + pacific islands every year.

i still thought they won that game to be honest

 

[amz]

Well, scoredboard said something else. Who know what would have happened if Tincu would have stayed in the field and Fercu would have travelled in NZ. but lots of "if" and in the end it was a loss so case closed.

 

[dragos03]

Farul Constanta - Steaua 17-16 in the last Superliga quarterfinal. Farul will play away at RCM Timisoara in the semifinals, while Dinamo will be heavy underdogs against Baia Mare. It's interesting that both quarterfinals were decided by a margin of only one point, with the losers missing decisive kicks in the last minutes of the matches.

 

[dragos03]

The Bucharest Wolves squad for the Challenge Cup qualifiers against Calvisano has been announced today. The list might change due to injuries since the Romanian clubs still have to play in the semifinals and finals of the Superliga. One of the best players in the league, fullback Catalin Fercu, is not included (according to rumours, he's moving to the Saracens).

Props
Alexandru Tarus (RCM Timisoara)
Constantin Pristavita (Baia Mare)
Petru Tamba (Farul Constanta)
Paul Rusu (Baia Mare)
Vlad Badalicescu (Farul Constanta)

Hookers
Otar Turashvili (Farul Constanta)
Claudiu Oancea (Baia Mare)

Locks
Valentin Popirlan (RCM Timisoara)
Johannes Van Herdeen (Baia Mare)
Petre Neacsu (Farul Constanta)
Dorin Lazar (RCM Timisoara)

Backrow
Viorel Lucaci (Steaua)
Alexandru Mitu (CSM Bucuresti)
Stelian Burcea (RCM Timisoara)
Daniel Carpo (RCM Timisoara)
Randall Morrison (RCM Timisoara)

Scrum half
Florin Surugiu (CSM Bucuresti)
Grigoras Diaconescu (Steaua)

Fly half
Filip Lazar (Steaua)
Valentin Calafeteanu (RCM Timisoara)

Centres
Csaba Gal (Baia Mare)
Robert Dascalu (Steaua)
Paula Kinikinilau (RCM Timisoara)
Florin Vlaicu (Farul Constanta)

Wingers
Madalin Lemnaru (RCM Timisoara)
Florin Ionita (Steaua)
Robert Neagu (Farul Constanta)
Ionut Botezatu (Baia Mare)

Fullbacks
Andrei Ilie (Farul Constanta)
Daniel Statulescu (CSM Bucuresti)

 

[welshglory]

Would you say that's a typical wolves team, aka development team or is it a representation of the best.

 

[dragos03]

It's stronger than the usual experimental squads fielded by the Wolves but there are a number of very important players missing (Catalin Fercu, Michael Wiringi, Ionut Dumitru, Eugen Capatana). There are also a few surprising callups (Neacsu, Diaconescu).

Keep in mind that the Wolves are allowed to use any player from the Romanian league, so very good foreign players like Nemia Kenatale Ranuku, Sosene Anesi, Sean Morell, etc could have been included to complement the Romanian ones and create a very strong team if the FRR wanted to qualify at all costs. However, only the foreigners who want to play for Romania and will soon be eligible to do so have been called up. Development is still the main purpose of this squad.

 

[dragos03]

Champion club RCM Timisoara has announced that none of its players will play for Bucharest Wolves this season, they claim they are not breaking any domestic or international rules with this decision. The official reason is that the club wants to win the Romanian Cup (a development competition that takes place in the same weekends as the Challenge Cup matches) but most likely the real reason is that Timisoara is bitter about the FRR's decision to give the CC spot to the Wolves selection instead of the champion club. If they won't change their minds about this, it could be a very serious blow to the Bucharest Wolves since Timisoara was the club with the highest representation in the squad (9 of their players were included).

Other news:
- Farul Constanta has signed Fijian international fly half Jonetani Ralulu (13 caps)
- in an U17 match part of the Cross-Border tournament in Baia Mare, Romania has defeated Lithuania 40-5

 

[amz]

Champion club RCM Timisoara has announced that none of its players will play for Bucharest Wolves this season, they claim they are not breaking any domestic or international rules with this decision. The official reason is that the club wants to win the Romanian Cup (a development competition that takes place in the same weekends as the Challenge Cup matches) but most likely the real reason is that Timisoara is bitter about the FRR's decision to give the CC spot to the Wolves selection instead of the champion club. If they won't change their minds about this, it could be a very serious blow to the Bucharest Wolves since Timisoara was the club with the highest representation in the squad (9 of their players were included).

That's a questionable decision and I wonder if they asked the players what they'd like; but they are also right from some point of view, in the end they're paying the players but still..

Anyway, will be interesting to see which is Wolves' status according with IRB/FRR regulations and what Federation will do.

 

[MauriSca7]

Former Timisoara's coach Danie De Villiers will be part of CSM Bucureşti coach staff

 

[dragos03]

Good for CSM, I think they have a talented squad and thay could do very well next season with good coaching.

In other news, Romania U17 has won the Cross-Border Tournament in Baia Mare, defeating Poland 35-3 in the final.

The Superliga semifinals will be played tomorrow, both will be live on TVR2 and www.rugbytv.ro:
Baia Mare vs Dinamo (10.00 local time)
RCM Timisoara vs Farul Constanta (20.00 local time)

 

[Croket66]

The Superliga semifinals will be played tomorrow, both will be live on TVR2 and www.rugbytv.ro:
Baia Mare vs Dinamo (10.00 local time)
RCM Timisoara vs Farul Constanta (20.00 local time)

Line ups
CSM Baia Mare
1.Mihai Dico 2.Alexandru Oancea 3.Paul Rusu
4.Ionut Hristache 5.Johannes Petrus Van Heerden
6.Sean Morrell 8.Constantin Ene 7.Kuselo Moyake
9.Bidzina Samkharadze 10.Daniel Brooks
11.Ionut Botezatu 12.Sione Faka'osilea 13.Csaba Gal © 14.Giorgio Phillips
15.Luke Samoa

16.Florin Gorun 17.Constantin Pristavita 18.Marius Pocris 19.Sione Vaiomo'unga 23.Teodor Buzatu
20.Samisoni Taufa 21.Cristian Dinis-Vartic 22.Alexandru Bucur

Dinamo Bucarest
1.Flavius Dobre © 2.Mihai Adascalitei 3.Teodor Bors
4.Florin Rosu 5.Andrei Badea
6.Simi Kata 8.Fe'ofa'aki Holo'ia 7.Paula Kata
9.Ciprian Caplescu 10.Siotame Manu
11.Silviu Tanase 12.Mihai Merca 13.Alfred Hausia 14.George Iacob
15.Lomani Fili

16.Cristian Musat 17.Alexandru Dumbrava 18.Lisiate Malani 19.Marian Arion 20.Iliuta Bratu
21.Andrei Cristea 22.Daniel Cubas 23.Marius Lacatusu

-----
RCM Timisoara
1.Alexandru Tarus 2.Eugen Capatana 3.Manasa Saulo
4.Valentin Poparlan 5.Andrei Mahu
6.Stelian Burcea © 8.Daniel Carpo 7.Dorin Lazar
9.Valentin Calafeteanu 10.Jody Rose
11.Stephen Shennan 12.Paula Kinikinilau 13.Jack Umaga 14.Madalin Lemnaru
15.Catalin Fercu

16.Marian Gorcioaia 17.Sami Maris 18.Gigi Militaru 19.Randall Morrison 21.Laurentiu Tanase
20.Victor Dumitru 22.Tangimana Fonovai 23.Viliami Moala

Farul Constanta
1.Petru Tamba 2.Otar Turashvili 3.Vlad Badalicescu
4.Daniel Crichton 5.Cristian Petre
6.Onal Agiacai 8.Eseria Vueti © 7.Malakai Ravulo
9.Nemia Kenatale 10.Jonetani Ralulu
11.Adrian Apostol 12.Florin Vlaicu 13.David Faamita 14.Alexander Tuchashvili
15.Dale Sabbagh

16.Matthew Taljard 17.Nicolae Nere 18.Florin Sasu 19.Petre Neacsu 20.Daniel Martac
21.Eugene Jantjies 22.Andrei Ilie 23.Robert Neagu