Romanian rugby in it's last days

[psychic duck]

Believe it or not the Romania national side used to be able to compete internationally, in the 1980's the Oaks beat Wales and France twice, beat Scotland and drew to Ireland and just lost to the All Blacks by 8 points. Many felt they deserved to be added to the 5 Nations but they were ignored.

But since the end of communist regimes in much of Eastern Europe in 1989, they have gone into a gradual decline, as their state funding fell. They were still able to beat France and Scotland in the early 1990's, but since then playing numbers have dropped by nearly a half, and club numbers have also gone way down.

By the end of the 1990's Romania could no longer challenge the 5 Nations sides hard, and were seen as relatively easy points in the 1999 World Cup for the likes of Australia and Ireland.

They were however, still normally able to win one game at a World Cup, beating USA in 1999, Namibia in 2003, Portugal in 2007, and they were also still the best non 6 Nations team in Europe.

But since 2007 they have been overtaken by Georgia who have become comfortably better than them and won the last few European Nations Cup's whilst without the full side. And for the first time ever in 2011, Romania didn't win a game in the World Cup with Georgia overcoming them comfortably in the second half of their Eastern European clash.

Romania can still give Georgia a decent game, but they have a massive problem. Their team is getting very old now, and unlike Georgia who now have over 20 players playing in the Top 14 a figure which is growing rapidly, Romania just has 6 players now. Even 10 years ago there would be much more.

And take a look at the ages of the last few Romanian players left in the top three European leagues, Marius Tincu of Perpignan is 34, Silviu Florea of Bordeaux-Bègles is 34, Alex Manta of Lyon is 34, Bogdan Balan of Lyon is 32, Ovidiu Tonita of Perpignan is 31, the only one under 30 is Paulica Ion of London Irish who is 29.

Tincu and Tonita are being released by Perpignan at the end of the season and Manta and Balan are both going back to ProD2 with relegation certainties Lyon, so next season unless some new Romanians get signed up which is unlikely there will be only Florea and Ion playing in the top three European leagues next season.

It is vital for the minnows to get as many players as possible playing at the top level and Romania just can't do that, and their days are numbered in the top 20 of World Rugby. As some new rugby nations are set to take their place.

Russia has a much bigger economy than Romania, and whilst they didn't win any matches at the 2011 World Cup it was an important step in just appearing and giving them World Cup experience. The best players from the World Cup have been signed up by top league European teams they have players such as Vasily Artemyev and Andrei Ostrikov who are 24, Victor Gresev who is 26 all playing top level rugby and these players will be able to lead Russia for the next 8 years at least.

There is also Spain, who have had a massive improvement this year but in a much different way to Russia who have a good system in place, Spain's method to improvement has been to find any French Top 14 or Pro D2 player who has some Spanish connection somewhere (remember Biarritz and Perpignan are on the Spanish border), as a result in their recent European Nations Cup squad they had four players playing in the top leagues in Europe and eleven in Pro D2. Unlike Russia, they haven't produced any good players but have managed to get a decent team through their tactic.

As for Romania it is a matter of time before these two nations will overtake them, they are still probably the second best in Europe outside the 6 Nations, but it is very close between them and Spain and Russia now. What is perhaps the last generation of good Romanian players with the likes of Ion, Tonita and Tincu may get them to scrape into the 2015 World Cup, but beyond that when all those players have had their last match for Romania, they won't be at RWC 2019 in Japan.

 

[Toko_11]

Rest In Peace Oaks 1919-2015(?)

 

[profitius]

Belgium seems to be making rapid progress too. I'd have high hopes for Belgium seeing that they speak French there and like Spain, they're neighbours with France.

 

[admartian]

Romania was a favourite of mine in 2007.

Hope to see them recover.

 

[Nielsch]

Agree with the article, though they did gave Scotland a scare at the last World Cup.

 

[London_Italian]

Agree that they are not as strong as they once were, and that is sad. However according to the IRB website the majority of rugby players in the country are teenagers or younger, so surely this is a positive sign? Agree also though that they probably will be overtaken by the likes of Russia, Portugal, Spain and maybe even Belgium.

 

[Melhor Time]

[h=3]Mihaita Alexandru Lazar has signed for Castres. He is a 25 year old loosehead prop.[/h]

 

[Nielsch]

Countries come and go. In football, Poland used to be able to compete with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, (West) Germany and Italy once. It is sad for Romania, but worldwide rugby seems to be on the rise.

 

[gingergenius]

This is a shame, but it's a continuation of a common theme in rugby's history - that the game has existed in a hell of a lot of countries, but in most of them war/ political change has meant it's fallen into disuse.

This may be horribly optimistic, but as I understand it, rugby is growing as a sport pretty much everywhere it's being played, which is very encouraging. At the end of the day, Romania might just have to be the exception that proves the rule.

I think for its global future, rugby really has to have a clear strategy (which in fairness I think the iRB is going about in the right kind of way). I think we all agree that rugby needs more top class national teams, and that is where to start.

In developed countries, more and more people are participating in sport - which means in places like Europe, there's always going to be people interested in an alternative to football. Rugby really missed a trick in most countries in Europe where basketball and handball are inexplicably popular. But now is the time to really bring on the likes of Georgia, Spain and to an extent Romania - nations that have shown a real aptitude for rugby.

Elsewhere, other wealthy countries like the USA, Canada, Russia, Japan and Brazil must really be brought on. They have large and rich enough populations to support a successful alternative to football.

I'd add places like Madagascar and Kenya to this too. Get them more and more involved and these countries really could bear fruits for the international game.

 

[cactus]

This may be horribly optimistic, but as I understand it, rugby is growing as a sport pretty much everywhere it's being played, which is very encouraging. At the end of the day, Romania might just have to be the exception that proves the rule.

Couldn't agree more. Rugby's certainly thriving here in Guernsey and there's definitely no signs of it slowing down yet! It is a big shame about Romania though, and I give credit where it's due to any Romanians who still play the game. I would just wish good luck to them!