Romania outlast Canada in Bucharest

Romania held off a second-half comeback by Canada who rallied from a 15-point deficit to end just five points adrift with the final score 21-16 at the Stadionul Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest on Saturday. World Cup hero Florin Vlaicu was again at the heart of the Romanian triumph, scoring 16 points despite twice hitting the uprights with kicks at goal. While several referee rulings left players of both teams perplexed, a porous Canadian defense in the first half contributed heavily to the disappointing result.

Canada got off to an ideal start with Gordon McRorie landing a penalty inside two minutes, but their inability to control the restart and clear their lines led to an immediate reply by Vlaicu, and not long after much worse. The Canadian scrum fared remarkably well throughout and after holding up a 5 metre Romanian put-in, the Oaks instead chose to attack and it was the robust flyhalf Vlaicu who took it on himself and had the strength to blast over for the try.

McRorie notched another penalty quickly in response, but Canada were on the back foot continually and after desperate tackles held up Romanian attacks in the try zone on two occasions, a picture from a week ago re-emerged. Florin Surugiu spotted the defense out of position and bounced a short ball in behind the line for Ionut Dumitru to touch down in almost a carbon copy of Catalin Fercu’s try against the Eagles. Vlaicu’s conversion rang off the iron but he made good on a penalty goal to take the Oaks into the break with a dominant 18-6 lead.

The second half offered little respite early as Romania continued to press with their backs, and Vlaicu’s third penalty made it a three-score gap and all but signaled Canada’s surrender. McRorie’s last act of the day was his third penalty goal, and the entry of Phil Mack seemed to spark the team. A tiring Romanian defense began to give ground to the Canadians but mistakes continued to haunt them until at last Mack’s quick thinking landed him over the line from in close. Connor Braid landed the conversion to make it a five-point game but the clock was their enemy, and the Romanian forwards ground out the final minutes much to the dismay of Canadian supporters.

Canada will now have just five days rest to prepare for their final tour match against Samoa in Grenoble on Friday. Romania meanwhile look forward to an Americas clean sweep if they can repeat their recent results when they host Uruguay on Saturday.

 

SCORING

ROMANIA 21
Tries – F. Vlaicu (12′), I. Dumitru (24′)
Cons – F. Vlaicu (13′)
Pens – F. Vlaicu 3 (4′, 31′, 54′)

CANADA 16
Tries – P. Mack (74′)
Cons – C. Braid (75′)
Pens – G. McRorie 3 (2′, 15′, 60′)

 

TEAMS

ROMANIA
1 Mihaita Lazar (17 Ionel Badiu 73′) 2 Eugen Capatana (16 Andrei Radoi 63′) 3 Alexandre Tarus (18 Alex Gordas 46′) 4 Johan van Heerden 5 Marius Antonescu (19 Valentin Poparlan 61′) 6 Viorel Lucaci (20 Cristian Chirica 77′) 7 Stelian Burcea (capt.) 8 Andrei Gorcioaia 9 Florin Surugiu (21 Valentin Calafeteanu 69′) 10 Florin Vlaicu 11 Ionut Dumitru 12 Vladut Popa 13 Jack Umaga (23 Stephen Shennan 70′) 14 Fonovai Tangimana 15 Catalin Fercu

Not used: 22 Nicolas Onutu

CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru (17 Rob Brouwer 55′) 2 Ray Barkwill 3 Jake Ilnicki (18 Ryan Kotlewski 73′) 4 Brett Beukeboom 5 Evan Olmstead 6 Kyle Baillie (20 Clay Panga 25′) 7 Matt Heaton 8 Admir Cejvanovic 9 Gordon McRorie (21 Phil Mack 61′) 10 Connor Braid 11 Taylor Paris 12 Ben LeSage 13 Conor Trainor (23 Ciaran Hearn 55′) 14 DTH van der Merwe (capt.) 15 Matt Evans (22 Patrick Parfrey 73′)

Not used: 16 Eric Howard, 19 Conor Keys

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Shuhei Kubo (JRFU)
Assistants: Luke Pearce (RFU) & Gary Conway (IRFU)
TMO: Stefano Pennè (FIR)