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With the Rugby Europe Championships getting underway with Friday night lights in Bucharest, expectations were very high. Romania were looking to ensure home advantage and start the Road to Australia 2027 on the right foot.
Manole (26'), Gontineac (46'), Simionescu (50'), Chirica (57'), Penalty Try (63'), Graure (77')
Tries
Marks (23')
Conache (28', 48', 51', 59'), Rupanu (78')
Conversions
Pretorius (24')
Conache (19', 34')
Penalties
Pretorius (10')
With the Rugby Europe Championships getting underway with Friday night lights in Bucharest, expectations were very high. Romania were looking to ensure home advantage and start the Road to Australia 2027 on the right foot.
As the game got underway, Germany were definitely not just going to follow the pre determined script by many. With quick and aggressive defence, the German defence were quick to stop an early wave of Romanian attack.
However, the defensive efforts did not mirror the success at the German lineout, where the first went astray and set the tone for most of the game at set piece for Germany. But thankfully for Germany, the Romanian set piece started off pretty cagey too.
After a period of back and forth with errors, Germany won a penalty in Romania’s half. Unfortunately the attempt was pushed right of the sticks.
Upon the return, Germany stood strong in defence with a huge turnover from Shawn Ingle, who usually plays his Rugby at Maidenhead RFC in England.
A few minutes later, Germany won a penalty from a high tackle, not far into Romania's half and went for the sticks again. This time, coming away with 3 points, while Ovidiu Cojocaru was removed with an elbow injury.
Not long after, a period of kick tennis ended with another German penalty in a similar position, however, the attempt this time was smashed low and hard like a 6 iron and hit the post protectors at the bottom. A messy period of play ensued and ended with Romania winning a Pen to return possession.
After a few more scruffy phases, with both teams finding their feet to settle in the game. Germany managed a monstrous attempt of a 50-22 from their own 22 but it ended up rolling out of the back of the try area.
Romania finally managed to get 3 points on the board and get level in the 19th minute after another dominant scrum display and subsequent penalty.
Germany were soon back on the offence though with what looked to be a drop goal attempt. Turned out to be a high ball, which gave them a scrum from the Romanian knock on. Germany managed to lock in, and after a number of pick and goes. Erik Marks managed to power himself over from about a metre out. With the conversion slotted, this put Germany 10-3 up after 24 minutes.
Surely, the upset isn’t going to happen on the first night?
That seemed to be the catalyst for Romania to go up a gear, they managed to get a try back after finding space and slipping tackles while under a penalty advantage too. With the conversion nailed, the score was back level. And Romania didn’t really look back from there. They managed to add another penalty kick on the 34th minute to put themselves 13-10 in the lead then used their scrum dominance to over power any German scrum possession before the half time whistle blew.
Early in the second half, Romania added some breathing space with Taylor Gontineac scoring after getting the ball through hands and slipping tackles again. With the conversion tucked away again, Romania lead 20-10 after 48 minutes.
Germany had found themselves over committing to tackles and ended up missing a large amount of tackles in the game, which really hurt their attempt to stop the Romanian tide.
Germany then tried to create a quick move of the back of a scrum, which saw a nudge over the top. Unfortunately, the chaser had jumped too early and had to check their run. This cause a gap for Romania to come through and score after a lovely offload in contact allowing Marius Simionescu to score under the posts and make the conversion an easy 2 extra points.
Germany still used their threat from a huge 50- 22 but couldn’t execute the Line Out once again, handing Romania another scrum where they applied their dominance.
In the 57th minute, Romania nearly drive over a scrum but get stopped. A couple of phases of pick and goes end up with Christian Chirica driving over to add another try to the scoreline. Another successful conversion took the score to 34-10.
Romania continued to attack and nearly scored in the corner but a genuine attempt to intercept by Germany was knocked on. Awarding Romania a scrum 8 metres out, the subsequent scrum was marched nearly all 8 metres back over the German line but when the try wasn’t scored due to an infringement the Ref blew up for a Penalty try to Romania.
Now with the scoreline at 41-10 after 63 minutes, there must have been a concern this could have ended with a larger scoreline. But the Germans dogged out the rest of the game, with a Romanian try disallowed for a forward pass on the 74th minute.
It took Romania until the 77th minute to finish the scoring after a break away try that was successfully converted too.
48 – 10 in the end to Romania will be a huge relief for Romania after a cautious start in the first 25 minutes of the game. Germany will have many positives to take away from the game and will definitely have eyes on tightening those areas when they go to Lisbon next week.
Romania will go to Belgium and expect to start the game better than they did the opening game.
| # | Team | PL | W | L | D | PD | BP | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Romania | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 1 | 05 |
| 2 |  Portugal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 05 |
| 3 |  Belgium | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -10 | 0 | 00 |
| 4 |  Germany | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -38 | 0 | 00 |
