Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Romania has named a 26-man roster for the upcoming South American tour. The Oaks will play tests in Valparaiso, Chile, and São Paulo, Brazil against Los Cóndores, and Os Tupis respectively.
Match dates for the tour are to be Saturday June 08, and Saturday June 15. The Romanians will depart for South America on June 02 flying to Santiago del Chile.
Romania’s coaching staff have named a 26-man roster which includes 15 forwards, and 11 backs. Of them six play for CSM Bucuresti; five for Timisoara Saracens; four for CSA Steaua; and one for CS Dinamo. The four remaining players are based in France.
For Romania the tour is to be just their second tour of the RWC 2015-2019 cycle. In 2016 the Oaks played ten test matches, all of which took place in Europe; in 2017 Romania also had ten test matches with two being outside of Europe. These were away to Canada, and Japan; while in 2018 Romania played eight matches and all were in Europe.
2018 was disastrous for Romania. Having qualified for RWC 2019 as Europe 1 the Oaks were subsequently disqualified, with both Romania and Spain deemed to have cheated by World Rugby. This saw them replaced as the team set to face Japan in the RWC 2019 opener by Russia.
For Romania the June 2019 South American tour marks a new beginning. It is a fresh-start with an eye to the RWC 2023 qualifying process. The Eastern Europeans will be able to begin their preparations now, three months prior to the tournament in Japan.
ROMANIA ROSTER
PROP: Constantin PRISTĂVIȚĂ (CSM Stiinta Baia Mare), Iulian HARȚIG (CSM Bucuresti), Alexandru GORDAȘ (CSM Bucuresti), Cosmin MANOLE (CS Dinamo), Alexandru SAVIN (CSM Bucuresti)
HOOKER: Eugen CĂPĂȚÂNĂ (Timisoara Saracens), Ovidiu COJOCARU (CSM Stiinta Baia Mare)
SECOND-ROW: Marius ANTONESCU (Colomiers, FR), Johan Van HEERDEN (Perpignan, FR), Ionuț MUREȘAN (Timisoara Saracens)
BACK-ROW: Dorin LAZĂR (Timisoara Saracens), Cristi CHIRICA (CSM Stiinta Baia Mare), Vlad NECULAU (Timisoara Saracens), Adrian ION (CSM Bucuresti), Mihai MACOVEI (Colomiers, FR)
SCRUM-HALF: Florin SURUGIU (CSA Steaua), Gabriel RUPANU (Timisoara Saracens)
FLY HALF: Tudor BOLDOR (CSA Steaua), Daniel PLAI (CSA Steaua)
CENTER: Vlăduț POPA (Timisoara Saracens), Taylor GONTINEAC (Clermont Espoirs, FR), Florin VLAICU (CSM Bucuresti)
Wing: Mihai LĂMBOIU (CSM Stiinta Baia Mare), Nicolas ONUȚU (CSM Bucuresti), Robert NEAGU (CSA Steaua)
Fullback: Dorin MANOLE (CSM Stiinta Baia Mare)
