Rugby union in Romania
| Rugby union in Romania | |
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| Country | Romania |
| Governing body | Romanian Rugby Federation |
| National team | Romania |
| Nickname(s) | The Oaks |
| First played | c. 1900 |
| Registered players | 8,188 |
| Clubs | 77 |
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National competitions
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Club competitions
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Audience records
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| Single match |
ca. 95.000 (19.05.1957) Romania vs. France (15-16) |
ca. 95.000 (19.05.1957)
Rugby union is a moderately popular team sport played in Romania with a tradition of more than 90 years. The Romanian men's national team was 16th in the IRB World Rankings in February 2016.
Rugby union in Romania is administered by the Romanian Rugby Federation (Federaţia Română de Rugby), which was founded in 1914. It joined the IRB in 1987 when Romania was invited to take part in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup.
The current president is Pompilie Borş.
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 Paris. Romanian rugby took root in Bucharest, established by students who had been to French universities, and by the capital's burgeoning middle class. Stadiul Roman and seventeen other teams would be formed in Bucharest from 1913 onwards. The Romanian Rugby Championship was first contested in 1914. Romania played France for the first time in 1924.
The nation's first international was played against the USA in 1919 six years after the game was first introduced. In 1931 a governing body was formed, the Federaţia Română de Rugby.
The first team outside Bucharest was formed at an aircraft factory in Braşov in 1939.
For the first half of the 20th century, Romanian rugby was fairly isolated, having most of its contact with France, 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. On his return to the UK, Harding spoke highly of the Romanian game, speaking of its consistently high standard and of the passion of both the fans and the players, which he thought unparallelled in Europe outside the Five Nations. 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. In 1955, a Romanian side toured England and Wales, playing Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol and the Harlequins, winning one, drawing two, and losing one. Later in 1955, the Romanians defeated Llanelli in Moscow, and then beat both Cardiff and Harlequins in Bucharest. Only France, who played Romania before 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.
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Wikipedia