Oaks see off Italian understudies

Romania bounced back from last week's crushing defeat to the Emerging Springboks by recording a solid if unspectacular 19-8 win over Italy A in Round Two of the IRB Nations Cup at the Arcul de Triumf stadium in Bucharest on Sunday.

Romania were better organised with their defensive line, while they had also rectified their line-out and scrummage problems from that 61-7 loss to the South Africans on Tuesday and they had the edge in the forward exchanges.

The Italians looked hungry and enterprising, taking the lead with wing Marco Rosa's try, although Romania led 14-8 at half-time after wing Catalin Fercu's try and three penalties from the boot of scrum-half Valentin Calafateanu.

Italy A's other points came courtesy of a penalty from fly half Andrea Marcato in the first half, and the match also saw second row Mario Vella sent to the sin bin by English referee Rob Debney.

The second half saw only one score, albeit an impressive try from the Romanians. Italy A were pounding at the host nation's line in search of a score to get back into the match, only for the newly arrived Ionut Tofan to intercept a poor pass.

Tofan launched a blistering counterattack on the right, back row Alex Tudori carried it forward and Fercu handled to pass the ball to the charging Iulian Dumitras for the fullback to go over in the corner.

Romania, whose number eight Augustin Petrichei missed the win with a muscle tear, will finish the IRB Nations Cup against Namibia on Sunday, while Italy A will seek a first victory of the competition against Georgia A.

The scorers:

For Romania:

Tries: Fercu, Dumitras

Pens: Calafateanu 3

For Italy A:

Try: Rosa

Con: Maracto

Yellow card(s): Vella (Ita)

The teams:

Romania: 15 Iulian Dumitras, 14 Catalin Fercu, 13 Gabriel Brezoianu, 12 Csaba Gal, 11 Ioan Teodorescu, 10 Ionut Dimofte, 9 Valentin Calafeteanu, 8 Augustin Petrichei, 7 Florin Corodeanu, 6 Stelian Burcea, 5 Cristian Petre, 4 Valentin Ursache, 3 Bogdan Balan, 2 Marius Tincu (captain), 1 Cezar Popescu.

Replacements: 16 Razvan Mavrodin, 17 Petrisor Toderasc, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Alex Tudori, 20 Daniel Carpo, 21 Lucian Sarbu, 22 Ionut Tofan, 23 Dan Vlad, 24 Catalin Nicolaae, 25 Valentin Poparlan, 26 Florin Vlaicu.

Italy A: 15 Alberto Sgarbi, 14 Marco Rosa, 13 Walter Pozzebon, 12 Matteo Barbini, 11 Ludovico Nitoglia, 10 Andrea Marcato, 9 Nicola Leonardi, 8 Jaco Erasmus, 7 Aaron Persico, 6 David Dal Maso (captain), 5 Mario Vella, 4 Enrico Pavanello, 3 Lorenzo Cittadini, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Giovanni Boccalon.

Replacements: 16 Luigi Ferraro, 17 Luigi Milani, 18 Alberto De Marchi, 19 Aldo Birchall, 20 Paul Derbyshire, 21 Luciano Orquera, 22 Pino Patelli, 23 Michele Nitoglia, 24 Giovanni Manozzi, 25 Fabrizio Parisse, 26 Michele Sepe.

With thanks to the IRB