The month of July is entirely dedicated to international friendly confrontations,
according to the rugby schedule at world level. Most of the official international
competitions have drawn to a close, so the main teams’ head-coaches can rely on
their star players. That also holds for Romanian teams where their best rugby
players have been summoned for three test matches. On July the first, Romanian
took on Italy in Bucharest. The Oak leaf Knights were overpowered in every
respect, especially as regards the physical training, and were trounced by
their opponents, 13 to 45. So harsh a defeat came as no surprise, though, given
that Italy is one of Europe’s best teams. We recall that for 22 years now, Italy
has been proving its mettle in the Six Nations Tournament. Then a tournament in Latin America was on schedule for
the Romanians. The Romanian national squad will twice be playing Uruguay, the
team that in South America is second only to Argentina. Uruguay has already
booked its ticket for the 2023 edition of the World Cup in France. Ahead of the
coming tournament, Uruguay is 18th-placed according to the world
rankings, one notch up than Romania.
This past Sunday in Montevideo Romania played its first game against
Uruguay and won the confrontation, 30 to 22. Romania’s Alexandru Bucur, Gabriel
Rupanu and Cristi Boboc successfully scored three tries. Rupanu scored the
first two, while Vladut Popa, the third one. Later during the game Rupanu successfully
converted three penalty kicks on a number of occasions, which increased Romania’s number of points. Tudor Butnariu got red-booked for dangerous tackling on 13
minutes, so the Romanian line-up was one player shy on the pitch.
On Sunday, July 17, also in Montevideo, Romania will yet again take on
Uruguay, in the second test match on schedule. At the moment, Romanian is 16th
placed according to world rankings, while Uruguay is 20th placed.
(EN)