Romania’s youngsters may pack a punch

IRISH coach Eddie O’Sullivan, quite understandably, fears the strength of the Romanian pack at Lansdowne Road tomorrow but he might also be well advised to keep a watchful eye on a couple of highly promising young backs who played key roles in last week’s late, late 22-20 victory over Canada in Bucharest.

Nineteen-year-old full-back Catalin Fercu scored their first try and by all accounts looked a polished operator while Ionut Domofte, 20, also settled in well at out-half. It was the first time the countries had met outside of the World Cup and on those two previous occasions, Canada had emerged clear winners. To prevail on this occasion, “The Oaks” relied on an 80th minute try by Pau flanker Alexandru Manta converted by Dan Vlad.

The match took placed in freezing temperatures and hopefully that will be far from the case when the game kicks off tomorrow at the unusual time of 12.30pm Romanian coach Daniel Sandemans announced yesterday that Petre Mitu of Tarbes would take over at scrum-half from Lucian Sirlu.

Not surprisingly, though, he hasn’t made any change up front where he is confident his huge forwards will give the Irish plenty to think about. Loose head prop Petru Balan is probably their best-known player having been a key member of the Biarritz pack in the Heineken Cup for a number of years. He weighs in 18st 5lbs and stands 6ft 1in and is highly rated both as a scrummager and as a loose forward. Flanker Ovidiu Tonita (6ft 5ins, 15st 12lbs) figured in 14 Heineken Cup ties for Biarritz before moving on this season to Perpignan where he has teamed up with hooker Marius Tincu.

All eight Romanian forwards ply their trade with such established French clubs as Biarritz, Perpignan, Brive, Agen, Tarbes, Grenoble and Pau so they will not want for experience. Indeed, it will be interesting to see how some of those given a rare chance by O’Sullivan such as Leo Cullen and Neil and Simon Best fare against such strong opposition.

ROMANIA: Catalin Fercu (Arad); Gabriel Brezoianu (Dax), Ionut Tofan (Metro Racing), Valentin Maftei (Aurillac), Ioan Teodorescu (University Club); Ionut Dimofte (Arad), Petre Mitu (Tarbes); Petru Balan (Biarritz), Marius Tincu (Perpignan), Pepe Toderasc (Brive), Sorin Socol (Agen) capt, Cristian Petre (Tarbes), Florin Corodeanu (Grenoble), Alexandru Manta (Pau), Ovidiu Tonita (Perpignan).

Replacements: Cezar Popescu (Tarbes), Marcello Socaciu (Rovigo), Costica Mersoiu (Perigueux), Cosmin Ratiu (Dinamo Bucharest), Lucien Sirbu (Metro Racing), Xabi Gal (University Club), Dan Vlad (Steaua Bucharest).