EVERY SELF-RESPECTING sporting event that is played in pools always has a ‘Pool of Death’. If you are a follower of Romania, or especially a member of their squad at this Rugby World Cup, you will be in no doubt as to the unlucky team forced to exist in so forbidding an environment. Poor Romania.
When the 2023 World Cup began, Pool B had lined up South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Tonga and Romania, and you really did fear that the Eastern Europeans would suffer terrible damage with that kind of fixture list – their opening fixture against Ireland in Bordeaux ended 82-8 to the Irish.
Yet perhaps younger readers of might have no idea as to the celebrated history of Romanian rugby, and some of us are absolutely mortified that potentially such a great rugby nation has fallen on such hard times. It may be difficult to believe but there was a time not so long ago when Romanian rugby was
