Rugby union in Romania
Rugby union in Romania | |
---|---|
Country | Romania |
Governing body | Federația Română de Rugby |
National team(s) | Romania |
Nickname(s) | Stejarii (The Oaks) |
First played | ca. 1900 |
Registered players | 9,810[1] |
Clubs | 113 |
National competitions | |
Club competitions | |
Heineken Cup Continental Club Rugby League | |
Audience records | |
Single match | ca. 95.000 (19.05.1957)
Romania vs. France (15-16) CEC Bank SuperLiga |
Rugby union is a moderately popular team sport played in Romania with a tradition of more than 100 years. In past eras, the game had been more popular and Romanian national teams had been relatively highly ranked in world rugby, but their standing declined since the dawn of professionalism and the end of communism. The Romanian men's national team are currently 20th in the World Rugby Rankings as of 19 March 2023.[3]
History
Early history
The game was introduced to Romania from France at the turn of the 20th century by students returning with rugby balls from their studies in
The nation's first international was played against the USA in 1919, six years after the game was first introduced.
The first team outside Bucharest was formed at an aircraft factory in
Communist period
For the first half of the 20th century, Romanian rugby was fairly isolated, having most of its contact with France,[4] and (to an extent) the Iron Curtain in the second half did not help either. However, this "isolation" was broken when Rowe Harding took the Welsh team Swansea touring there to play national champions Locomotiva.[4] On his return to the UK, Harding spoke highly of the Romanian game, speaking of its consistently high standard as well as of the passion of both the fans and the players, which he thought was unparalleled in Europe outside the Five Nations.[4] The tour and Harding's praise effectively opened up Romanian rugby to the rest of western Europe, sparking a number of tours travelling to and from the country.[4] In 1955, a Romanian side toured England and Wales, playing Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol and the Harlequins, winning one, drawing two, and losing one.[4] Later in 1955, the Romanians defeated Llanelli in Moscow, and then beat both Cardiff and Harlequins in Bucharest.[4] Only France, who played Romania in front of almost 95,000 fans in Bucharest (in a preliminary match to a soccer international), could beat the Romanians, and that was only after an epic 16-15 battle.[4]
A generation of French school-trained coaches from the late 1940s and 1950s laid the foundations for national success in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In 1974, Romania won against France 15 – 10 in Bucharest,
The former All Blacks scrum half Chris Laidlaw, writing at the end of the 1970s, saw rugby as a positive force in East-West relations at the time:
- "Rugby has become the ping-pong of outdoor sports in its capacity to spread goodwill between East and West. Over the last 30 or 40 years it has spread through Eastern Europe, establishing itself strongly in Rumania and Yugoslavia, Hungary and into the USSR. The fact that a Russian team [sic] has finally played a full-scale, if unofficial Test match against France speaks for itself."
- "Rugby tours between countries on either side of the Rumanian tour of New Zealand, for instance, germinated other contacts between the two countries and was partly instrumental in the establishment of new trade agreements which otherwise might not have begun."[8]
Chris Laidlaw writing of the open secret of shamateurism in Soviet sport said:
- "So far as the East Europeans and the Russians are concerned, who knows where the incentives lie? In such societies rugby, like many other sports before it, is becoming an expression of national achievement and therefore the subject of careful nurturing. Yet, is the risk of the double standard, so evident in the athletic arena, permeating the East Europeans' approach to rugby so great as to justify the exclusion of the Communist world indefinitely from regular rugby competition?"[8]
- "Much to everyone's surprise, Eastern Bloc countries are among the game's vigorous participants, seemingly oblivious to rugby's capitalist class-ridden origins. Russia emerged from behind the Iron Curtain and came under international scrutiny when they played France in Toulouse in November 1978. Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia are members of the IB."[9]
Post-communism
After the fall of communism in 1989, Romanian rugby union suffered a dramatic financial shortfall. In 1995, the first ever
Romania first got regular international competition when they joined the newly formed
Governing body
Rugby union in Romania is administered by the Romanian Rugby Federation (FRR), which was founded on 1st December 1912 as Federațiunea Societăților de Sport din România (FSSR).[5]
National team
The Romania national rugby union team, nicknamed The Oaks, has long been considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations tournament. It often takes part the Rugby World Cup, which is hosted every four years.
Romania plays every year in the
The Antim Cup is contested between Romania and Georgia. The cup is contested each time Georgia and Romania meet in a senior international match other than World Cup matches. Romania has won the cup on six occasions in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010 and in 2017.
Romania has played at every World Cup so far (except for the 2019 tournament in Japan, as it was disqualified) and won at least one game at each World Cup (except for the 1995 and 2011 tournaments, where they lost all of its games).
Domestic competition
The Liga Națională de Rugby, which has been contested since 2010 in its current format, is the main domestic competition in Romania. It has been contested by many teams across the country since 1914. During the communist period in Romania, the competition had been dominated by
Domestic cup
The Cupa României, which has been contested since 1914, is the main domestic cup in Romania that has also been contested by many teams across Romania along with the Liga Națională de Rugby. Like the domestic competition, the Cupa României had been dominated by
European club tournaments
In 1995, the first ever
Instead of playing in the Heineken Cup, Romanian teams had qualified and took part in the
The
Popularity
In the 1980s, the country reached its peak in the sport as the national team managed to defeat teams such as Wales, Scotland and France, who all played in the Five Nations Championship.
Not only that, the national team would become more and more popular among Romanians and as a result, the country had more than 12,000 players playing rugby and 110 rugby clubs.
Yet, after the fall of communism, Romanian rugby union suffered a drastic financial shortfall. However, its popularity – which has never been comparable with that of
According to World Rugby, Romania has 113 rugby union clubs and approximately 25,000 rugby players, 9,810 of which are registered players (most of these players are male and only a small fraction of these players are female).
See also
- Romania national rugby union team
- List of Romania national rugby union players
- Romania national under-20 rugby union team
- Romania national rugby sevens team
- Romania women's national rugby sevens team
- Liga Națională de Rugby
- Cupa României
- Romanian Wolves
- Sport in Romania
References
- ^ https://pulse-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/worldrugby/document/2017/03/09/766b1947-4543-4bc5-9240-8d139046b653/2016-PARTICIPATION-MAP-FINAL.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Record mondial de spectatori pe "23 August"". adevarul.ro. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- ^ "Men's Rankings | World Rugby".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bath pp 73, 74
- ^ a b "Istoria sportului românesc: Rugby". Agerpres (in Romanian). 19 May 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
- ^ "Rugby Teams, Scores, Stats, News, Fixtures, Results, Tables - ESPN". ESPNscrum.
- 1974–1975 FIRA Trophy
- ^ a b Laidlaw, p52
- ISBN 0-304-30299-6), p8
Bibliography
- Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1)
- Richards, Huw A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union (ISBN 978-1-84596-255-5)
Further reading
- Barbu, Aurel, Stama, Tiberiu, File din istoria rugbiului românesc, Editura Consiliului Național pentru Educație Fizică și Sport, București, 1969.
- Manoileanu, Dumitru, Rugby: Mică enciclopedie, Editura Sport-Turism, București, 1982
- Moldoveanu, Traian Rugby: istorie românească: povestită de un griviţean, Vol. I, Editura Scripta, București, 2016, ISBN 978-973-8238-56-5)
External links
- Romanian Rugby Federation (official website) (in Romanian)
- Asociația Internaționalilor de Rugby din România (in Romanian)
- PlanetaOvala.ro – Romanian Rugby News (in Romanian)
- Planet-Rugby news for Romania
- Weathered Oak: Romanian rugby (from BBC News)
- From riches to rags (from BBC News)
- No Hanging Up the Boots