Rugby World Cup 2015

Romania-France match review

Florin Orban, 24.09.2015, 14:04

Romania’s rugby team put on a good
performance in their first match at the 2015 Rugby World Cup hosted by England
despite losing 38:11 to former runner-up France.

In the first part of the match, Romania
even managed to dominate their opponents. France, however, scored early, in the
8th minute of the game, with a penalty goal kicked by Morgan Parra.
Romania’s Florin Vlaicu helped level the score in the 20th minute. A
minute earlier, however, Romania had been close to France’s touch-in goal, but
they were not awarded the try, as the video referee decided the ball did not
touch the ground. In the 26th minute, it was again Vlaicu who missed
a penalty from in front of the posts, wasting Romania’s opportunity to take the
lead. It all came to pieces for Romania in the 29th minute, when
Paulica Ion was sent off with a yellow card. While Romania were one man down,
France converted two tries, leading 17:6 at half time.

In the second half, the scoreline
was unchanged for 26minutes. In the 67th minute, Sofiane
Guitune scored another try, albeit a contentious one, taking the score to 24:6.
It was all over for Romania, who lost all their self-confidence. They did,
however, manage to score a try in the 74th minute, thanks to
Valentin Ursache. The final scoreline, 38:11, was established one minute before
the end of the match, when France scored another try. Looking back, Romania
were above expectations and even had a few flashes, but were too weak to pull
it off.

In their next game on
Sunday, September 27th, at Wembley, Romania will take on Ireland,
the winner of the 2015 Six Nations Championship. On the 6th of
October, Romania face Canada at Leicester City Stadium and a few days later, on
the 11th of October, they play against Italy at Sandy Park, in
Exeter.