Wood: Romania can do us a favour

Romania are certain to be facing an early flight home but Keith Wood is adamant the East Europeans will have a major say in who advances out of the World Cup’s group of death.

Ireland did all that was required of them in Gosford yesterday, running in five tries and collecting a bonus point on their way to a 45-17 win which looked comfortable enough on the scoreboard.

The bare statistics do scant justice to Romania’s efforts though. For long periods they matched their much-vaunted opponents and had they shown a little bit more composure in their best spell either side of the interval, Ireland might have been seriously troubled.

As it is, Wood and his team-mates can prepare for Sunday’s encounter with Namibia in the hope that Romania might do them a favour against the other Pool A big guns, Australia and Argentina.

“Romania could have a big impact on this group,” said the inspirational Lions hooker.

“They are incredibly physical, fully able to take the game to the opposition and fully able to put them under an enormous amount of pressure.

“Not only that, when you look at the nature and manner in which they play, there is almost an additional risk of picking up an injury.

“Nobody wants to see that, but if it were to happen, and one team was affected badly, it could have a huge effect.”

Romania provided one of the most exciting players on view in 25-year-old winger Gabriel Brezoianu, whose pace unsettled Ireland at times and was denied a touchdown of his own by a slight shove from David Humphreys, which brought the underdogs a penalty try.

While never seriously threatened, the Irish hit top form only in sporadic intervals.

After Shane Horgan and Wood had crossed during the first-half, Ireland repelled a Romanian rally with a Denis Hickie brace either side of a barnstorming Victor Costello effort.

Considering they were forced to play the entire second half directly into a howling gale which blew right down the ground, coach Eddie O’Sullivan was happy enough with the outcome, particularly as he could also report no serious injuries.

“There are quite a few bumps and bruises because it was such a physical game but we managed to get the players off who were carrying knocks,” he said.

“The weather made it extremely difficult and at times the game turned into a bit of a slugging match, which didn’t really suit our style.

“But I was particularly pleased with the defensive effort. It was probably the best performance we have had in that aspect of the game for a very long time.

“The way we dug in to keep them out in that spell around half-time said a lot about the resilience of the team and while I know we can get better, overall I am quite happy.”