Radio Romania International Sports club
Rugby
Florin Orban, 25.10.2023, 01:45
The World Rugby Cup has now reached its final stage. In Paris on Saturday, the grand finale will see New Zealand facing South Africa. Both teams have had an unassuming start in the competition, with defeats in the group stage. New Zealand was defeated by France, while South Africa was defeated by Ireland. However, progress was increasingly visible for both teams, since in the quarterfinals, South Africa defeated host team France, while New Zealand defeated defending world champions Ireland.
In the group stage, we had the chance to watch South Africa play, that including a match against Romania. The “Springboks” trounced Romania, 76-nil, causing the second defeat for our national team at the 2023 edition of the World Cup. We recall Romania was given a most serious hiding in their debut game, being defeated by Ireland, 8-82. The defeat was even more serious in the game against Scotland, nil-84. The only match where Romania mattered a little bit was the fixture against Tonga, a game they lost anyway, 24-45. However, we could see a lot of determination among the Romanian players, given that, quite unlike the previous confrontations, the game against Tonga was not entirely hopeless. Eugen Apjoks trainees succeeded three fine tries, through Cristi Boboc, Florin Surugiu and Marius Simionescu.
In the wake of Romanias dismal run in France, rugby fans could see for themselves how far Romania was from earning a place in the first echelon at world level. We even wonder if we can claim a position among the worlds second-tier teams, where such line-ups as those of Portugal, Georgia or Fiji have had a good run at the World Cup 2023. For these countries, on Wednesday, World Rugby broke the news.
Beginning with the 2027 edition of the World Cup in Australia, the final tournament will include 27 teams. In theory, Romania still stands a chance to yet again prove its mettle at the World Cup, as our national squad is 20th placed according to the as-it-stands table at world level. World Rugby has also ruled the setting up of Nations League, a competition due to kick off beginning 2026. The Nations League will have two divisions with twelve teams each. The first division will be made of the worlds top ten national teams and two guest national teams. Fixtures are scheduled in July and November, replacing the previous tournament or the test matches that were usually held in July and November. According to World Rugby, changes have been made in a bid to enable weaker teams to play top-flight squads more often.
