Athlete of the Week – Rugby player Florin Vlaicu

Florin Vlaicu put on a solid performance in the match against Spain.

Florin Orban, 21.02.2017, 13:12

Romania started off on the wrong foot this international rugby season. Their last weeks defeat by Germany represented one of their poorest results in the past years, being at the same time the biggest surprise in Rugby Europe Championship since its early days.

After the disastrous performance in Germany, Romania managed to secure a difficult 13-3 win against a determined Spanish side in Bucharest. Florin Vlaicu scored all the points for the hosts, following two penalty shots and a try conversion. We can thus say that it was Florin Vlaicu who made the difference, a reason for which Radio Romania International has designated him Athlete of the Week.

Born in Bucharest in July 1986, Vlaicu made his debut with local side Steaua. He also played for Farul Constanta and Olympia Bucharest. He went to Italy to play for Calvisano and then came back to Steaua Bucharest. He grabbed his first cap for Romanias national side taking on Ukraine in 2006 in a game counting towards the European Nations Cup. He was part of the Romanian lineup in three World Cup editions in 2007, 2011 and 2015, scoring 28 points in total.

With 799 points scored for the national squad, Vlaicu holds an absolute record in the Romanian rugby. His objective is to make it to 1000 before withdrawing from competitions. If successful he would join an impressive hall of fame including New Zealander Dan Carter, English Jonny Wilkinson, Welsh Neil Jenkins, Irish Ronan OGara and Italian Diego Dominguez. Fact is that after these two weeks, Vlaicu is the best scorer in Rugby Europe Championship with 26 points followed by Raynor Parkinson of South Africa who is currently playing for Germany. (Translated by V. Palcu)