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Florin Orban, 14.08.2023, 13:45

Romanias rugby team continues preparations for the World Cup, which starts next month in France. On Saturday, in Tbilisi, in a test match, Stejarii, in English the Oaks were defeated by the national team of Georgia, score 56-6. The Romanian national team opened the score in the 3rd minute, with a penalty try converted by Ionel Melinte. The hosts then came back and took the score to 13-3. Melinte brought Romania back into the game in the 23rd minute also by converting a penalty try. The end of the first half, however, belonged to the Georgians, who scored two tries, of which only one was converted, and, at the break, the score was 25 to 6 for Lelos. The second part of the game belonged entirely to the hosts, who grounded the ball in the Romanian team’s in-goal area five more times, and three of the tries were converted. Romania thus lost the second test match of the summer, after, a week ago, it was defeated by the United States team, in Bucharest, 31-17. Next, on Saturday, Romania will face the last test against Italy, away from home. The first game of the Oaks at the World Cup is scheduled for September 9, against Ireland, in Bordeaux.

Now we pass on to tennis. Sorana Cîrstea remains the best-ranked Romanian player in the world professional hierarchy, being ranked 31st according to the WTA ranking published on Monday. Among the top 100 players in the world are Irina Begu on 39th position and Ana Bogdan on 59th place. The former world leader Simona Halep reached the 578th place. She has not played for more than a year, following the doping scandal in which she was involved and which is still waiting for its outcome in the international sports courts.

Let’s move on to football. At the weekend, matches were played counting for the fifth stage of the Romanian Superleague. On Friday, FC U Craiova 1948 defeated FC Voluntari in Craiova, 3-1. On Saturday, in Galati, Oţelul ended in a draw, 1 all, with Universitatea Cluj, then Universitatea Craiova defeated Politehnica Iasi 4-1, away from home. On Sunday, Petrolul Ploiesti won 2-0 in Bucharest the match against Rapid. The program ends on Monday, with the game in Bucharest between Dinamo Bucharest and FC Botoşani. Three matches from the fifth stage were postponed to allow the preparation of the teams representing Romania in the preliminaries of the European Conference League competition, namely the match in Sibiu, between Hermannstadt and FCSB, the match in Cluj, between CFR and Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe, and the match in Ovidiu, between Farul Constanţa and UTA Arad. FCSB continues to lead the Superliga standings, with 12 points from four games. Next is Universitatea Craiova with 11 points from five games. (LS)