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Scotland v Romania
Sadly this game falls into the World Cup mismatch category with Romania ranked 17th in the current IRB world rankings and Scotland ranked 7th, ahead of Ireland and Argentina.Romania have hit the headlines lately with their star winger Catalin Fercu, who has scored 22 tries in his 51 test matches withdrawing from the World Cup squad due to his fear of flying. One of the problems with International rugby is that the lower ranked teams, like Romania only get the opportunity to play against the higher ranked once every 4 years and even then they are only allowed this chance if they qualify for the World Cup competition.
In Fercu's 51 caps he has only played against 3 teams ranked inside the IRB's top 10. Romania are traditionally known as a very physically strong and forward based team and true to form their leading players at this tournament are all in their pack. 8 of their forwards play professional rugby outside Romania, with 4 of them plying their trade in the premier divisions in France and England. Team Captain and hooker Marius Tincu has been a stalwart of perennial Heineken Cup challengers USA Perpignan since 2005, props Silviu Florea and Paulica Ion have 60 caps and 17 years of International experience between them and play in the Top 14 and the Aviva Premiership respectively. The obvious weakness for the Romanian's is their back division, their stand out back is Fullback Iulian Dumitras who represents Lourdes in the third tier of French rugby, Federale 1. Dumitras is one of just 2 backs who play their rugby outside of Romania, the other being scrum half Lucian Sirbu who plays for Millau in Federale 3.
Scotland on the other hand are a team littered with talent with half the squad playing their club rugby in Scotland for either Glasgow or Edinburgh in the RaboDirect PRO 12 competition and the rest spread between Wales, Ireland and France. Scotland have been on a very good run of form lately too with just 5 losses in the last 18 months, a period of time which has seen them play 14 test matches including 2 against both of their Pool B rivals England and Argentina and saw them record a 21 – 17 victory over South Africa.Scotland though are not without their problems, not least is the selection dilemma Andy Robinson faces at the Fly Half position. On the one hand he has the Celtic League's record points scorer Dan Parks who will provide a steady hand at 10 and has amassed over 60 caps for the land of his maternal Grandmother. Parks however is 33 years old and not known for his ability to run and release the backs outside him, which is surely where Scotland can win this game, Parks' other major weakness is his defending and if any of the big Romanian ball carrying forward seem him standing between and the try line they won't think twice about making a bee line for Parks inside shoulder. Robinson's other option at 10 is young tyro Ruaridh Jackson, at just 23 years old Jackson is a much more mobile and exciting prospect at Fly Half and he would surely relish the opportunity to attack a back line that has had very little exposure to quick and strong top class International attackers. Another area of concern for Scotland fans must be the decision of Andy Robinson to "rest" a number of key players meaning the likes of skipper Alastair Kellock and potential superstar Richie Gray have not played a competitive game of rugby since the 6 Nations Championship ended in March.
Scotland should win this game and they should win it in a very stylish manor if they select young Ruaridh Jackson and let him unleash powerful midfield runners like Joe Ansbro and wingers Shaun Lamont and Simon Danielli. If Romania can drag Scotland into an arm wrestle between both sets of forwards then they could run the Scots close but I expect the fitness of a team who all play top flight professional rugby to win out in both scenarios.
Blog by @Buck_Mitchell
