Romanian Rugby

[amz]

Timisoara Saracens just announced they will put an end to the contract with Grainger Heinkell after failing to qualify for Challenge Cup.

No news yet about the new coach.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Timisoara Saracens just announced they will put an end to the contract with Grainger Heinkell after failing to qualify for Challenge Cup.

No news yet about the new coach.

Unfortunately I couldn't see that match after all but that seems a tough on the coach unless they think he had a lot more money for players than Krasny Yar. It's not the coaches fault their international fly half was injured. And they could still win the Superliga. You guys have been saying they underperformed regularly this season though.

Speaking of which, Steau's ***le charge takes a hit. Looked a great match in the week of the drop goal. What a pass by Vlaicu for Dimitru's try! A decent crowd in too. I don't have a clue who will win the ***le now.

https://youtu.be/2G7w66lfMsY

And Iasi showing their entertaining style again.

https://youtu.be/9Wphn226acE

 

[amz]

Vlaicu's pass draw some attention:
http://rugbyonslaughter.blogspot.ro/2017/04/romanian-centurian-florin-vlaicu-throws.html

About Timisoara, I think it was the right decision. Heikell had two years to improve things and apply his own ideas but the team has gone from bad to worse..same tactical mistakes, same indiscipline etc. I never thought I will regret Danny De Villiers but the team worked much better with him on bench and player's attitude was more positive.

I think is a good decision, it is obvious Heikell was not up to the task. I don't know the exact causes, I can only suspect them. I think the technical staff was neglected by club management and they thought they could go with a very limited team.

The team is simply not coached, same players are much better at national team than at the club team. This is mainly a failure of management, I don't blame the players at all, this team could be much much better with proper coaching. With all that, the qualification was achieved by Krasny Yar on Timisoara's short commings in kicking to posts rather than from a better game play so lack of kicking player is obviously the main reason.

This could turn better for Timisoara on long term if stakeholders will learn something from this and bring a more professional coaching team.

 

[amz]

Timisoara appointed Chester Williams as Director of Rugby. He coached the team before, between 2012 - 2013 and left the club winning all trophies in the respective year for family reasons if I remember well.

The announcement is a little unclear, it says will help Anesi's stuff to keep the Champion ***le at Timisoara but it doesn't say anything about the next season.

 

[Croket66]

That's a very good news for Timisoara. I think he was the best to have coached Timisoara. Then Dannie de Villiers looked a good guy but not a very good coach, and then, Grainger Heikell was even worst.
Howerver, coaching is not the only reason of Timisoara decline, other teams are getting stronger each year

 

[dragos03]

This is a great move for Timisoara. I don't think Chester is such a great coach but he is very respected and it's not like they could find anyone better on short notice in the middle of the season.

As far as I know, Chester Williams has always hoped to coach the Oaks. Maybe he thinks this is the right moment to return to Romania and become a candidate for the position, since Howells will retire soon.

Heikell should have been sacked a long time ago. I don't think he was fired only because of the Krasny Yar result (hard to win with half of the squad unavailable). They have been awful lately, eliminated from the Cup by CSM, humiliated in the Challenge Cup and defeated by both the main rivals in the Superliga.

 

[Croket66]

Cluj forfeit against CSM what's the problem?

 

[amz]

Cluj forfeit against CSM what's the problem?

Many injuries and lack of funds due to losing main sponsor which led to not having enough players to play the match properly. Worrying is that they might also forefeit the play off qualification match.

 

[Croket66]

Many injuries and lack of funds due to losing main sponsor which led to not having enough players to play the match properly. Worrying is that they might also forefeit the play off qualification match.

A shame! Hope the problem will be resolved

 

[dragos03]

Big blow for the Oaks after Florin Surugiu was suspended for 5 matches and will miss not only Steaua's remaning Superliga games but also the Japan and Canada tests. This was for a late tackle on Calafeteanu that resulted in a serious injury for the CSM player, who will also be out for several months.

Romania will have to travel without the two best scrum halves, I'm curious who will be their replacements (Bratu, Tigla ?).

The list of unavailable players for June was already very long and it continues to increase (Mihaita Lazar is also injured).

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The top two international scrum halves take each other out of biggest international tour in recent Romanian history. You couldn't make that up!

If the decision was taken by the Union then fair play to them outfit principle before national interest. What the hell did Surugiu do? Late tackle and to the head with his shoulder or something? At least it wasn't just before the REC.

I don't think Steau or CSM will have much chance in the Superliga semi finals this weekend against Timisoara and Baia Mare respectively. Not without their scrum halves.

 

[dragos03]

It was a late shoulder tackle that resulted in a very serious injury for Calafeteanu, who spent some weeks in the hospital (even had some internal damage). I also hope Surugiu will appeal and his suspension will be reduced to allow him to tour. The decision was taken by a FRR disciplinary board.

CSM are improving but their chances away at Baia Mare are minimal. However, I think Steaua can beat Timisoara. Missing Surugiu will be a blow but they have another good and experienced scrum half to replace him, Grigoras Diaconescu.

 

[amz]

The top two international scrum halves take each other out of biggest international tour in recent Romanian history. You couldn't make that up!

If the decision was taken by the Union then fair play to them outfit principle before national interest. What the hell did Surugiu do? Late tackle and to the head with his shoulder or something? At least it wasn't just before the REC.

I don't think Steau or CSM will have much chance in the Superliga semi finals this weekend against Timisoara and Baia Mare respectively. Not without their scrum halves.

It was a late tackle with shoulder. Most agree to disagree, some said it's just yellow, some said it's red. Disciplinary decision was appealed. As in any WR member country, the panel is independent from FRR even if appointed by and its members are not affiliated in any way with FRR or clubs, same with the appeal committee.

It was a late shoulder tackle that resulted in a very serious injury for Calafeteanu, who spent some weeks in the hospital (even had some internal damage). I also hope Surugiu will appeal and his suspension will be reduced to allow him to tour. The decision was taken by a FRR disciplinary board.

CSM are improving but their chances away at Baia Mare are minimal. However, I think Steaua can beat Timisoara. Missing Surugiu will be a blow but they have another good and experienced scrum half to replace him, Grigoras Diaconescu.

I think he stayed +1 - 2 days over a week but luckily the evolution was the best he can get in such situations and hopefully he'll be ready to be on the field in 3-4 months. I am curious to see what will be the outcome and if Surugiu will stay banned, who will pick Howells.

First players to think about are Bratu, Tigla and than maybe Vaman and Palii.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Far too much rugby I want to watch today! Thank goodness the weather is bad here today so I don't feel so guilty. All signs suggest it is semi-finals day for the Superliga today and that they will be streamed on the link below as well as shown on TV. But both the Superliga website and the RugbyTV pages are unusually not updated with links (usually this is done perfectly). Is everything going ahead as planned?

https://www.rugbytv.ro/

Baia Mare vs CSM (1400hrs local time, 1200hrs UK)
Steaua Bucharest vs Timisoara (1600hrs local time, 1400hrs UK)

Hoping for a Baia vs Steaua final.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

CSM go down heavily to Baia Mare, but this semi-final was entertaining and far closer than the scoreline suggested. Two certain tries for CSM lost to excellent last man tackles. They will be back strong next year I am sure. Baia Mare looks like the most fun place to play / watch rugby in Romania.

 

[amz]

I missed all live rugby today except Poli Iasi - U Cluj played at 11 local time in the morning due to a match played by my club ; come back home convinced there isn't any more rugby to watch and now I opened this side and find our Timisoara/Steaua and Belgium/Portugal just finished and I missed it. Silly me, forgot to check kick-off hours properly

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I missed all live rugby today except Poli Iasi - U Cluj played at 11 local time in the morning due to a match played by my club ; come back home convinced there isn't any more rugby to watch and now I opened this side and find our Timisoara/Steaua and Belgium/Portugal just finished and I missed it. Silly me, forgot to check kick-off hours properly

Well I posted the kickoff times and managed to somehow miss the Steaua vs Timisoara semi and am avoiding the score. I'm an idiot!

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Argh. Another loss by Steaua in a big game without conceding a try. These super low scoring big matches continue to puzzle me. The big 3 concede more points to the smaller teams than they do to each other. It might be a good sign that coaches are taking defensive systems very seriously. Or it might be nerves and cautious tactics?

Highlights suggest Steaua conceded a lot of penalties at the breakdown to Timisoara's superior pack. A disappointing end to my first season of supporting Steaua.

 

[amz]

Yes, I think top teams are more nervous and cautious when playing better sides plus there is a lot of vanity involved.

This match was shadowed by Steaua's football gallery which was quite rude and made a bad non-rugby like atmosphere on the stadium. I had no idea what team to support and what would be better for future but I am kind of fed up with this incidents with football supporters of Steaua or Dinamo

Referees were from Ireland, Super Liga regulations allows that one team can ask for foreign refs in semifinals or final. General opinion was that it wasn't better than Romanian refs but au contraire, they've made a lot of mistakes.

I still believe most problems of our top clubs come from lack of proper coaching (e.g. specialized coaches)

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Yes, you see the atmosphere at Baia Mare and it is families and young couples. Then the Dinamo and Steaua "fans" are a completely different atmosphere and I imagine you wouldn't want to bring a child to it.