Rugby
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Steliu Lambru, 19.10.2016, 13:08
Romania’s national fifteen continues to be ranked 16th in a world ranking published by World Rugby. The representative of New Zealand, triple world champion, has consolidated its position as a leader, the second place being occupied by England with Australia coming in third. In November Romania has three friendlies scheduled, all of them at home.
Our players will be first taking on the United States on November 12th, then Canada a week later and will be up against Uruguay on November 26th. World rugby has also announced the referees of these games. The game Romania versus USA will be umpired by Paul Williams of New Zealand, Romania versus Canada will have Japanese Shuhei Kubo as referee, while Welsh Ben Whitehouse will umpire Romania versus Uruguay.
Romanian referee Vlad Iordachescu will be assistant referee in the game pitting Germany against Uruguay due on November 12th in Frankfurt, while on November 19th the Italian referee of Romanian extraction Marius Mitrea will umpire one of the most important games of the month, when England will be up against Fiji on Twickenham stadium in London.
Romania’s rugby champions, Timisoara Saracens has started off on the wrong foot in the fifth group of the Challenge Cup, the second most important inter-club competition in Europe. On their own turf, Timisoara conceded defeat to Scottish side Edinburgh 17-59, 10-45 at halftime. The match was almost entirely dominated by the visitors who scored no less than nine tries through Michael Allen, Nasi Manu, Viliame Mata and Stuart Mclnally.
Two of these were converted by Jason Tovey, adding to the bonus point the visitors got for attacking mostly throughout the game. Stephen Shennan of New Zealand scored two essays for Saracens, which were converted by Valentin Calafeteanu, who has also converted a penalty kick.
In the group’s other match, Harlequins of England has defeated French champion in 2015 Stade Francais. Edinburgh tops the group with five points, followed by Harlequins also with five points, Stade Francais ranks third and Timisoara is at the bottom of the table. (translation by D. Bilt)