Romania’s rugby team has kick-started the new season on a dismal note.
Romania’s rugby team has kick-started the new season on a dismal note. The Oaks sustained an away defeat against Germany in the opening fixture of the Rugby Europe Championship. In Offenbach am Main, German rugby players grabbed a 41-38 win, providing one of the biggest surprises of the competition ever since its beginning. Ahead of the game against Germany, Romania was 16-th placed in world rankings, while its opponent was 24th-placed. The discrepancy is big enough, according to world rankings, and allegedly tantamount to the difference between Romania and France, with the latter team being 8th-ranked ahead of this past weekend.
On Saturday in Iasi, Romania will face Spain, in the second fixture of the season. For the match against Spain, Romania’s Welsh manager Lynn Howells has summoned six rugby players. In the debut fixture of the ongoing European competition, in Madrid, Spain trounced Russia, 16-6.
Romania has three more fixtures to play in Rugby Europe Championship. In Sochi, on March 4, the national team play Russia, then in Brussels on March 11, they are up against Belgium, while on March 19, Romania take on Georgia. The 2017 and 2018 fixtures are crucial for the qualification to the World Cup, scheduled in Japan in 2019. There are several possibilities for Romania to go through to the final tournament. First off, Romania will have to be at the top of the table in the 2017-1018 edition of the Rugby Europe Championship. Romania can still secure a place in the World Cup 2019 if they are the runner-up team and Georgia are at the top of the table.
We recall that Georgia secured a direct qualification from the World Cup in England. If they came 3rd, Romania would then have to prove their mettle in a play-off fixture against the 3rd placed team in the Pacific Tri-Nations, with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga taking part in the tournament.
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