Is there bad blood / rivalry between these two? More so than with CSM / Olimpia?
One can write a Ph.D regarding rivalry between these two clubs. Steaua is Army's club, founded in 50s, Dinamo is Interior Ministry (Home Office) sports club and their rivalry stretches to all disciplines where they compete (football, rugby, handball) for decades.
I do expect some members of football galleries to show up at this game but they're lot behaved than at football, still cursing and some smoke may be expected although not the fights from football. Steaua - Dinamo is THE RIVALRY , THE DERBY in Romanian sport.
A couple more unrelated questions. How much does the Romanian RFU look out for "project players"? As in, attract foreigners, let them play in their league for three years then give them a Romanian shirt? On the wikipedia page for your national side I saw at least four names that didn't sound Romanian, but that seems quite low compared to what the Tier 1 nations do. I personally dislike that this is allowed, but for Tier 2 and 3 I think it is at least something that might help them develop for positions where they don't have a decent home grown option (whereas at Tier 1 I find it embarassing - with Scotland and Wales at least employing full time staff to do this). The fact Romania has a professional league might make that more achievable than for some of their Tier 2 rivals.
First player who gained eligibility for Romania was Otar Turashvili who played his entire professional career here until last year when he signed with Colomiers. Than when SL started clubs transferred foreigners (mainly SH players) and obviously some become eligible for Romania. Since T2 sides always have a depth issue it was normal to select these players. Added to that, it was a gap in development of juniors for some years (which will be closed) who made interesting these players. But there isn't any program coordinated by FRR in this regard, it's just what can be picked from what clubs' transfer. Currently played for Oaks Otar Turashvili, Johan Van Heerden (SA), Randall Morisson (SA), Jody Rose (SA), Jack Umaga (NZ), Steven Sheenan (NZ) and probably this year Tangimana Fonovai from Timisoara will be available too for Oaks.
However, to be noted that clubs started to transfer their project players meaning younger players who after 3 years will be considered Romanians so they won't count as foreigners (from next season only 6 will be allowed in the line-ups).
So there isn't any policy to push for project players but to pick what players qualify for this and could be useful for Oaks. I think the presence of these foreigners, especially SH players helped Romanian rugby. Juniors see different type of play, some of them are thinking to move here or are married here and already coaching at junior level so it's a human resource that cannot be ignored. In the 80s the isolation of Romanian rugby hurt the play (too tight play, built around big packs) and this openness to foreigner input can only do good. Next step would be to employ foreign coaches but money are limited. Clubs already become more selective in signing foreign players.
One peculiarity is that now SL offers salaries comparable with Federale 1/ Elite which makes many good Romanian players to come back and play here. Considering that the prices are lower, some can find interesting to even refuse Pro D2 moves. Time will show if this is beneficial or not but this year we've seen some come backs from Eccelenza or France.
Also if a team closes or goes bankrupt, like Farul Constanta, are they replaced by a team from the same town/city in the lower league? It's a decent sized city and it'd be a shame if they didn't have a team at in the top two leagues to cheer on. In the UK if a sports club dies financially, it usually is just reborn with a slightly different name in the bottom division.
Any legal person who'll go bankrupt will be radiated as a legal person at the end of the procedure so no, Farul is dead and buried. There are no law provisions regarding the trophy box of the club so probably this will go to Local council (club's owner) so will be possible to be transfered to a newly founded club.
I think Constanta have the highest density of junior clubs so yes, would be a pity to not have a team in top league. Nearby town Navodari have a team in second division and they signed some of Constanta's players; they have in mind a promotion in SL but it's a small town, difficult to find resources; however, the stadium (Legmas) is much better than Timisoara's own stadium
Also from this season, a small junior club, Tomitanii (name come from old Greek antiquity name of the city, Tomis) which was mostly privately funded until this season will be allowed to play in 3rd Division with its U20 team; FRR changed regulations to allowed the players to compete in two competitions, U20 championship and Divizia A (3rd Division); they receive financing from local city hall and county council this time based on the laws which allow this type of financing and not as it was previously done with Farul. Btw, the guy who was in charge with these funding was convicted to 15 years of prison (it can be appealed).
