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Rugby

RWC Memories: When Romania came closest to shocking a traditional power

When it comes to Rugby World Cups, it's always a given that the Six Nations countries as well as ...



RWC Memories: When Romania cam...
Rugby

RWC Memories: When Romania came closest to shocking a traditional power

When it comes to Rugby World Cups, it's always a given that the Six Nations countries as well as New Zealand, Australia, South Africa (the Springboks missed the first two tournaments because of apartheid) and Argentina are always going to be there.

But one other European nation always makes it to the party. Romania, who are in Ireland's pool this time round, have been at every World Cup since its inception in 1987.

As a second tier European rugby nation, they have never progressed from their pools, never winning more than one match at any given edition of the tournament and never beating any of the traditional top nations.

Romania, who have a rich history of rugby partially fanned by the former Communist regime before professionalism and the fall of said regime took hold, lost to Ireland in 1999 and 2003.

But you have to go back four years to 2011 for their best result against a traditional rugby power when they took Scotland to the wire in Invercargill, New Zealand.

In fact the Romanians even powered into a 24-21 lead with a quarter hour to go as you can see above thanks to then Steaua București No 8 Daniel Carpo's converted try.

The eventual result was 34-24 to Scotland in that opening game for both sides, but only because Simon Danielli's two tries in the final five minutes rescued the Scots with their then-coach Andy Robinson comparing it to Andy Murray's five-set wins in tennis. 

Ireland are unlikely to fall short against Romania (you can gauge their threat in detail thanks to this excellent in-depth analysis by Off The Ball's Cian Murtagh) but Joe Schmidt will also hope his side are not given as uncomfortable an experience as the Scots had to endure four years ago.

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