RRI Sports Club: Rugby

The 2017 rugby season ended last weekend.

Steliu Lambru, 29.11.2017, 13:25

The 2017 rugby season ended last weekend. In the last two test-games Romania defeated Samoa on home turf 17-13 but conceded defeat to Tonga, 20-25.

This was the second match with Samoa for the Romanian team. In the first match played in 1989 Romania won 32-24. This year, the Romanian team known as the Oaks won again after a very balanced game. Romania’s points were scored by Florin Vlaicu, from a penalty kick, and by Andrei Radoi and Ionel Badiu, who scored two essays, which were transformed by kicker Florin Vlaicu. Nanai Wlliams, with two penalty kicks and a collective essay transformed also by Williams brought the points to Samoa.

The second match with Tonga was more difficult than the one with Samoa. The Romanians led the game 3-0 and 6-3, but Tonga took control of the game and finally won. Scoring for the Romanians were Florin Vlaicu, with two penalty kicks, Ionut Dumitru and Johann Van Heerden, each with one essay, both transformed by Vlaicu. Sonatane Takalua, Ateli Pakalani, Leva Fifita and George Taina scored points for Tonga from essays. The match with Tonga was the last one ahead of the Rugby Europe Championship fixtures next spring, counting towards the World Cup 2019.

The Oaks end 2017 on 15th place, according to the World Rugby rankings. Ahead of the match with Tonga, the Romanians were ranked 14th. If they had won the match, they would have gone up one place. Romania collected 69.58 points, and improved its position in the ranking as compared to last year, when they took 16th place.

New Zealand and England rank first and second, respectively, Ireland comes 3rd and Australia 4th. Georgia, Romania’s annual contenders in the Antim Ivireanul Cup, is ranked 12, with 73.46 points.