Romania facing tough turnaround

Editor

Lynn Howells admits Romania will be up against it when they take on Ireland on Sunday after just four days' rest.

The Oaks kicked off their World Cup campaign with a 38-11 loss to France, matching their opponents for long periods before conceding three tries in the last 15 minutes.

They did that by dominating at the breakdown, and putting the French set-piece under pressure, preventing France from playing the quick offloading game they hoped to employ.

Now Romania must immediately turn their attention to Ireland, and their coach, Howells, knows it will be very tough to get the players back up for a second game in such quick succession.

"It was certainly about keeping the possession," he explained. "Playing in the right areas of the field and realistically to try to stop France playing the quick wide game they wanted to play.

"I think you could see by the amount of substitutes that we used that once the game had gone away from us it was about getting players off and making sure they were ok. 

"We're pretty lucky, there's no injuries. Now it's about recovery. The expectations of the Irish team are the same as against France. We want to go out and play and prove we can compete against these teams. 

"For 60 minutes we showed we can compete. Against Ireland it's more of the same but less points.

"We look forward to Ireland. They give us a different challenge. It's a Tier One nation and hopefully we'll show we can compete."