Formidable as Romania’s opponents will be at the Rugby World Cup this September, Romanian rugby has already spent years facing down its toughest adversaries: the financial limits and internal conflicts plaguing the very clubs that should be the lifeblood of the national team.
With about 7,000 registered players, a half-dozen professional men’s teams making up a domestic league (the CEC Bank Superliga) and the Oaks representing the country in international test matches, the dynamics of Romanian rugby would seem straightforward enough.
Dig a little deeper, however, and the situation becomes more complicated.
The main problem is that the Superliga is composed of teams that have maintained close ties to their local multi-sport clubs, even as the sport of rugby has grown into a global, big-money business. This anachronistic setup leaves rugby club funding largely in the hands of local town halls, resulting in erratic financial backing as local politicians hop on and off the club’s bandwagon — depending, of course, on a team’s on-field fortunes and consequent popularity, or lack thereof.
In essence, then, most of Romania’s professional rugby teams must operate as if they are on semi-professional budgets, thus limiting the development of Romanian rugby as a whole. Though the standard of play in the Superliga is high, it could be improved significantly if there were more money to attract and retain talented players.
Local ownership also creates an environment of individualism at club level, leading to subtle but pernicious difficulties. Take, for instance, the case of the Bucharest Wolves. Founded in 2004 as a sort of developmental all-star team, the Wolves draw players from each of the Superliga teams, and act as Romania’s representative for the Rugby Challenge Cup, Europe’s second-tier club competition.
Over the years, however, RCM Timisoara — the one privately-owned Superliga club — have made it clear they would prefer the Wolves’ role be filled each year by the reigning Superliga champion — an unsurprising stance given that Timisoara have consistently been in the running for that title.
The situation escalated into open conflict in 2014 when Timisoara refused to release its players for Wolves duty. The move led to ill feelings from the banned players — whose chances for national selection were drastically diminished — and interfered with the efforts of the Romanian Rugby Federation (FRR) to groom its best players for selection to the Oaks.
Things didn’t end there, however. Later that year, retaliation against Timisoara seemed to arrive when, due to mysteriously missing paperwork, several of their players were ruled ineligible ahead of a crucial match. Timisoara lost the game — and with it any chance at the Superliga title — and though it’s not officially known who perpetrated the sabotage or what their motivations were, it was undoubtedly borne of internal grudges of one kind or another.
Of course, this kind of strife only partly explains why Romanian rugby has struggled during the professional era. Much larger and more serious factors have played their part, most glaringly the economic hardships which have engulfed Romania since the fall of its communist government in 1989. Thus, while it’s easy to say the Superliga teams need more consistent funding, that money has to come from somewhere — not an easy fix in a country with a struggling economy and few tax incentives for corporate sponsors.
Still, the egotism and in-fighting across Romanian rugby are only exacerbating the vicious circle in which the FRR finds itself: limited finances mean limited talent, leading to average results and continued apathy from the Tier 1 nations towards the idea of profitable test matches in Romania.
The Oaks, in fact, endure arguably the weakest test schedule of any Tier 2 nation year after year—consider that since RWC 2011, the Tier 1 nations have deigned to play Romania exactly zero times. This stands in stark contrast to the three Tier 1 matches given to Canada, the four handed to the USA, or the five doled out to Japan. In fairness, Romania have faced high-calibre sides such as Tonga and Fiji in that time; however, when those teams are factored into the “total matches” comparison with Canada, the USA, and Japan, the numbers become even more inequitable.
With a storied history dating back to the early 1900s, and long stretches of competitiveness — for a time Romania was even ahead of Italy as favourites for expansion of the Five Nations — the continued mediocrity of the Oaks should be distressing to any fan of quality international rugby, especially given the potential they have shown in recent years.
Yet in one sense, Romania have an advantage over their more powerful foes, those who spend four years obsessing over the Webb Ellis Cup: it’s easier to avoid useless daydreams of the future when the present is so challenging.
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