The Athlete of the Week

the athlete of the week Rugby player Daniel Plai

For Romania's national rugby team, the international competition season 2021 has come to an end. Romania completes the year on the 2nd position in Rugby Europe Championship, with good chances to qualify straight into the 2023 World Cup to be hosted by France. It is also ranking 15th in the World Rugby standings, one place down from one of the 6-Nations tournament teams, Italy.


Romania played 3 matches this autumn. In a test match on November 7, in Verona, Italy, it defeated Uruguay 29 - 14. Next came a postponed Rugby Europe Championship game, on November 13 in Bucharest, against the Netherlands, which the Romanians won with flying colours, 56 - 15. And finally, last Saturday Romania played against Tonga, in Bucharest, and won 32 - 20.


This latest victory against Tonga is all the more important, considering the position of that team in the world rankings and the fact that Romania mostly used players from the national championship. Tudor Butnariu and Florin Surugiu scored a try each, both of them converted by Tudor Boldor, who also scored 2 penalty tries. Another 12 points were scored by Daniel Plai through penalty kicks, a performance for which Radio Romania International has designated Daniel Plai the Athlete of the Week.


Daniel Plai was born on September 5, 1994, in Gura Humorului. He has been playing rugby since the age of 7. His first team was the local School Sports Club, with which he won Romania's junior competitions. In 2013 Daniel Plai transferred to Politehnica IaČ™i, a team with which he joined the Super League, the top tier Romanian rugby competition. 


Since 2018 he has been a fly half for Steaua Bucharest, and he made his debut in the national rugby team in 2016. (tr. A.M. Popescu) 


www.rri.ro
Publicat: 2021-11-30 13:45:00
Vizualizari: 1032
TiparesteTipareste