Oaks uproot brave Namibians

Romania, the hosts of the 2006 Nations Cup, struggled to overcome a brave and committed Namibia at the Arcul de Triumf stadium in Bucharest on Saturday, but a 28-16 victory was duly delivered courtesy of Valentin Calafeateanu's unerring boot. Romania started strongly seemed rattled by the ferocity of the Namibian challenge in the loose and the solidity of their scrum, a very encouraging sign in their build up to Rugby World Cup 2007.

A solitary try midway through the first half by outside centre Gabriel Brezoianu, celebrating his 65th cap for Romania, gave the home supporters the faint hope that their team might be able to overcome the Georgian lead in the standings by acquiring a bonus point - which is awarded for scoring four tries.

This hope was short-lived though, as the Namibians, ably led by skipper Gideon Lensing, bounced back with flank Tinus du Plessis carried over by the pack for a well-deserved try.

A conversion and two further penalties by their dynamic fly-half Tertius Losper brought Namibia within a score, but Romanian captain Marius Tincu and his right-hand man Florin Corodeanu at number eight rallied the troops to put the match beyond the reach of their opponents with two additional penalties by Calafeteanu and a drop-goal from replacement fullback Florin Vlaicu.

Tincus and Corodeanu were two of Romania's five outstanding players in the tournament, the others being Calafeteanu, wing Catalin Fercu and fullback Iulian Dumitras.

The victory was Romania's second in the tournament, which had begun with a disappointing 61-7 loss to the Emerging Springboks.

By contrast Namibia return home without a victory after also losing to Argentina A and Georgia in Bucharest.

The scorers: For Romania: Try: Brezoianu

Con: Calafeteanu

Pens: Calafeteanu 5

Drops: Calafeteanu, Vlaicu

For Namibia: Try: Du Plessis

Con: Losper

Pens: Losper 3

The teams: Romania: 15 Iulian Dumitras,14 Catalin Fercu, 13 Gabriel Brezoianu, 12 Csaba Gal, 11 Catalin Nicolae, 10 Ionut Dimofte, 9 Valentin Calafeteanu, 8 Florin Corodeanu, 7 Alex Tudori, 6 Stelian Burcea, 5 Cristian Petre, 4 Valentin Ursache, 3 Petrisor Toderasc, 2 Marius Tincu (captain), 1 Cezar Popescu.

Replacements: 16 Razvan Mavrodin, 17 Bogdan Balan, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Augustin Petrichei, 20 Daniel Carpo, 21 Ciprian Caplescu, 22 Ionut Tofan, 23 Ioan Teodorescu, 24 Florin Vlaicu, 25 Valentin Poparlan, 26 Dan Vlad.

Namibia:15 Heini Bock, 14 Ryan Witbooi, 13 Du Preez Grobler, 12 Corne Powell, 11 Melrick Africa, 10 Tertius Losper, 9 Pieter Rossouw, 8 Jacques Burger, 7 Jacques Nieuwenhuis, 6 Tinus du Plessis, 5 Nico Esterhuizen, 4 Heino Senekal, 3 Marius Visser, 2 Rudolf Bardenhorst, 1 Gideon Lensing (captain).

Replacements: 16 Hugo Horn, 17 Jane du Toit, 18 Jonny Redelinghuys, 19 Uakazuvaka Kazombiaze, 20 Jan Hendrik Duvenhage, 21 Eugene Jantjies, 2 2 Lu-wayne Botes, 23 Stefan du Rand, 24 Herman Lindvelt, 25 Jurgens van Lill.

With thanks to the IRB