Rugby Union in Romania

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Romanian Rugby Federation
Founded 1914
president Haralambie Dumitraş
societies 77
Members 8818
Association headquarters Bucharest
Homepage www.frr.ro

After football, rugby union is one of the most popular team sports in Romania and has a long tradition with the Romanian rugby association founded in 1914 ( Romanian Federaţia Română de Rugby ). The Romanian national team is 16th in the world rankings of the IRB (as of September 2014).

history

Development up to the outbreak of the Second World War

At the beginning of the 20th century, rugby union was introduced in Bucharest by Romanians studying in France and quickly adopted by the middle class. Following the example of French clubs. a. Tenis Club Roman , Sporting Club or Stadiul Roman . In 1919 the first club outside Bucharest was founded ( Jiul Lupeni ), and the Romanian national team played their first international match (0:19 against USA in Paris).

The first international guests were welcomed on April 8, 1923, when a Bucharest syndicate ( Tenis Club Roman and Stadiul Roman ) was defeated by the Heidelberg Rowing Society (3: 9). The German-Romanian comparison continued in the autumn - the Bucharest traveled to Germany and defeated AS Leipzig (17: 0), drew against SC 1880 Frankfurt (3: 3) and were again subject to the rowing society Heidelberg (5:12).

A national team traveled to the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 at their own expense and won the bronze medal (the first medal in Romanian Olympic history). In the same year the first contact with the Polish rugby took place - Romanian selections won games against Orzeł Biały (German White Eagle): 46-0 and 17-0 in Bucharest, and 19-6 and 30-6 in Warsaw.

Up until the outbreak of the Second World War, further clubs were founded (18 teams were already playing for the championship in 1930), many of them workers' clubs, such as B. the highly successful Griviţa Bucharest (later Griviţa Roşie Bucharest ), founded by employees of the railway workshop of the same name. Romanian teams played regularly against national teams and national teams from France and Germany.

Rugby Union during earlier communism

Despite its bourgeois roots, rugby was not only tolerated, but cultivated by the communist regime. One possible reason for this is the fact that the first post-war party leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , worked at the Griviţa workshop. Like many other sports, rugby was used behind the Iron Curtain as a propaganda tool to emphasize the supposed superiority of communism.

In 1953 the Welsh team Swansea RFC traveled to Bucharest and played against the then champions Locomotiva . After their return, the coach Rowe Harding praised the Romanians' game and spoke about the high demands of both the players and the fans - with the term unparallelled in Europe outside the Five Nations . The praise made a number of tours to and from Romania possible. In 1955 a Romanian selection traveled to England and Wales, and there was one win, two draws and one loss against Swansea RFC, Cardiff RFC , Bristol United and Harlequins . In Moscow there was a win against Llanelli RFC and in Bucharest there were further wins against Cardiff and Harlequins. In 1956 the Harlequins played again twice against a Bucharest syndicate: 10-0 and 10:14 (in front of 40,000 spectators). The same syndicate returned unbeaten from England a few months later: 6-6 against the Leicester Tigers , 10-6 against RFC Gloucester and 6-6 against Bristol United. In 1958 Swansea lost all three games against local clubs in Bucharest: 6-12 against Steaua , 5-9 against Dinamo Bucharest and 3-5 against Geotehnica.

The golden era of Romanian rugby

A generation of trainers trained in France laid the foundation for later success in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Romanian clubs took part in the FIRA Cup, which is held every two years. Grivita Rosie Bucharest lost to AS Béziers 3:11 in the 1962 final and won the cup two years later 10-0 against Stade Montois . Dinamo Bucharest were crowned FIRA Cup champions in 1966 after beating SU Agen 18-0 .

The national team played international matches against other Eastern Bloc teams (including the GDR), but also increasingly against the French. In 1957, over 100,000 spectators saw a dramatic encounter between Romania and France : After a 15: 6 lead in the meantime, the oaks lost 15:16 in the last few minutes. The rugby attendance record was only broken in 2000. The first win against Les Bleus in 1960 was 11: 5 in Bucharest, and further good results were recorded in the following years (1961: 6: 6 in Bayonne, 1962: 3: 0 home win, 1963: 6: 6 in Toulouse and 1968 : 15: 14 home win). It is noteworthy that France won the Five Nations in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967 and 1968, and even won the Grand Slam in 1968 .

Romania has played in the European Cup for national teams since 1965 (later the FIRA European Championship ). In the following nineteen years Romania was five times European champion, eleven times vice champion and three times third. 1984/85 was the only season of this competition in which the oaks were pushed out of the top 3.

In 1976 a national team traveled to New Zealand and drew the attention of the traditionally closed Anglo-Saxon rugby world. In two matches not recognized as international matches, Romania surprised the five-nation powers Wales (12:13 in Cardiff, with a last-minute Welsh drop goal) and Ireland (13:13 in Dublin).

The series of good results for the national team continued in the 80s and early 90s: 15:10 against France (1980), 6:14 against New Zealand (1981 - the Scottish referee denied the Oaks two valid attempts), 24 : 6 against Wales (1983), 28:22 against Scotland (1984), 15: 9 in Cardiff against Wales (1988), 12: 6 in Auch against France (1990) and 18:12 against Scotland (1991).

In 1987 Romania was invited to take part in the first IRB Rugby World Cup. The Oaks won 21:20 against Zimbabwe and lost to France and Scotland.

Rugby amateur status

In communist Romania, all sports were organized on an amateur basis. According to the rules, the players were not allowed to be paid and had to have a job with the responsible companies or authorities, only employees of the militie ( police ) were allowed to work at Dinamo , at Steaua all athletes were soldiers and officers, Rapid only had railway workers with them and only the students were allowed to play in clubs such as Sportul Studențesc or Universitatea Cluj .

However, the rules were only kept formally. The athletes were actually hired according to the rules, but most of them didn't have to work, or at least not full-time. The players of the university-affiliated clubs were admitted to the course without the compulsory examination and were exempt from the strict attendance requirement. The state-sponsored clubs (especially from Bucharest) had a comparatively good to excellent training infrastructure, and their players enjoyed many privileges.

However, this status quo has damaged the reputation of Romanian rugby. The players were often referred to as "shamateurs" in the Anglo-Saxon media , and it was not until 1987 that Romania became a member of the International Rugby Football Board .

Amateur or not, at the height of Romanian rugby there were more than 12,000 adult players organized in 110 clubs and rugby union was the most popular team sport after football and handball . The league games were watched by thousands, often tens of thousands, of viewers. However, all sporting events have benefited from the lack of entertainment alternatives of the communist times; Added to this was the fact that the stadiums were real oases of freedom from the increasingly oppressive regime.

After the turn

After the end of the communist regime, Romanian rugby got worse and worse. All sports were influenced by the transition from totalitarian structures to democracy and above all by the transition from a planned economy to a free market economy. Many factory sports clubs were no longer able to maintain and expand the infrastructure if they were not simply dissolved anyway.

The decision made in 1972 by the then Minister of Transport to introduce rugby as a compulsory subject in all vocational schools under the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport was simply reversed due to the political change. The consequences can still be felt today - rugby has lost much of its popularity because fewer and fewer children and young people play it.

The momentum gained from the 80s allowed the national team to achieve deceptively good results. Romania managed to take part in all rugby world championships (from 1991 as a qualifier). At the Rugby World Cup in 1991 , an unexpected group stage defeat against Canada prevented them from reaching the quarter-finals. In 1995 the oaks were able to stand up to the eventual world champions South Africa (8:21), even if they returned empty-handed with three defeats. In each of the following three editions there is at least one group stage win ( 1999 against the United States , 2003 against Namibia and 1999 against Portugal ).

These good individual results and the sovereign domination of the first editions of the European Nations Cup , which was held from 2000, were more of a success of the state-supported structures and the good youth work from communist times.

The first game of the newly founded Heineken Cup took place in 1995 in Constanța - the Romanian champion Farul Constanța lost significantly (10:54) against the eventual winner Stade Toulousain . That was the only participation of a Romanian club in this top competition. Romanian clubs played in 1996–2000 and 2002–2005 only in the secondary European Conference (later known as the European Shield , now known as the European Challenge Cup ).

In 1995 rugby union turned professional - and this event hit Romanian rugby hard. The gap between the rich, established rugby nations and Romania, which was almost closed at the end of the 80s, has widened ever since. Promising youngsters, established stars and also successful coaches decided to play or train in the stronger western leagues (especially in France ). In the short term, this is actually good for the players and the national team, as the higher level allows the players to develop further. However, the basic structures are neglected, with serious consequences.

The oaks , once hot candidates for a five-nation membership, were left in the lurch by the state and could only watch powerlessly as the Italians , who only became FIRA European champions once (but in the last and decisive season, 1995-1997), pushed past them and played in Six Nations from 2000 . And the initial dominance in the European Nations Cup also slowly disappeared: The Georgians , supported by their state and the IRB , were now the strongest European national team outside of the Six Nations. Embarrassing defeats increased. A national team boycotted by the stars playing in France conceded a 0: 134 record swatter against England at Twickenham in 2000 . In the ENC, the oaks achieved historic first defeats against Portugal, Russia or Spain - results that were hardly conceivable a few years earlier.

Today's development

The number of players has dropped drastically since the fall of the Wall. Today 9,852 players are registered by the association, of which only about 1,000 are adults.

The internal club championship is organized on three levels: the professional Super League , the single-track Divizia Nationala and below the double-track Divizia A .

Since 2005, the Romanian clubs have been represented at the European Challenge Cup by a selection team made up of Super League players. Originally Bucharest Oaks (dt. Bucharest Oaks ) called Team in 2011 in Bucharest Wolves renamed to avoid confusion with the national team, and is sometimes referred to as Bucharest Rugby referenced in the Anglo-Saxon media.

literature

  • Bath, Richard (Ed.): The Complete Book of Rugby (English). Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997, ISBN 1-86200-013-1 .
  • Richards, Huw: A Game for Hooligans: The History of Rugby Union (English). Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh , 2007, ISBN 978-1-84596-255-5 .
  • Chihaia, Octavian: File din istoria rugby-ului (Romanian). Editura GMI, Cluj-Napoca, 2008, ISBN 978-973-1776-00-2 .
  • Barbu, Aurel, Stama, Tiberiu: File din istoria rugbiului romanesc (Romanian). Editura Consiliului National pentru Educatie Fizica si Sport, Bucuresti, 1969.
  • Manoileanu, Dumitru: Rugby. Mica enciclopedie (Romanian). Editura Sport-Turism, Bucuresti, 1982.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Archived copy ( memento of the original dated September 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.irb.com
  2. ↑ a b c d Bath, pp. 73, 74
  3. ↑ a b c d http://www.rugby.ro/articol/palmaresul-echipei-romaniei--stejarii-au-ajuns-la-323-de-meciuri-internationale-951/
  4. ↑ a b http://www.adevarul.ro/sport/antifotbal/rugby/Record_mondial_de_spectatori_pe_-23_August_0_545346085.html
  5. ↑ http://www.rugby.ro/articol/1956-122/
  6. ↑ http://www.rugby.ro/articol/1958-123/
  7. ↑ http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/matchcentre/bucharest_wolves.php

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