“This was a dream that became a reality today,” admitted coach Haralambie Dumitras. The Italians again refused to give up but could only manage a try by Alberto Chiesa, the fly half rounding off a sweeping backline move, and so it was Romania left celebrating a first piece of silverware since the European Nations Cup success of 2006. Emerging Italy cut the deficit with a penalty and four points remained the margin until Romania were awarded a penalty try with 10 minutes remaining as their pressure finally told. Romania’s new fly half Dorin Manole ensured his side went in leading 10-3 at half-time after adding a converted try to his earlier penalty, but he was also guilty of missing the target with three penalty attempts. For a while it looked as though Romania would be their own worst enemies as chance after chance went begging, although the young Italians never buckled despite long periods of dominance by their hosts.

That left Romania and Emerging Italy, the youngest team in the tournament, comprising Under 25 players from the Italian domestic championship, to battle it out for the title. In reality they had been fortunate that Russia were unable to convert their first-half dominance of the set pieces into points.Įmerging Italy proved a surprise package and came close to claiming the title in Romania The South Americans came up one-try short of their target as they turned a slender 12-9 half-time advantage into a comfortable looking 33-9 win with tries from replacement trio Nicolás Basile, Marcos Bollini and Lucas Ponce in the last 10 minutes.

Romania, hosting the key IRB strategic tournament for the sixth year in a row, would ultimately be crowned champions, but only after edging tight battles with Argentina Jaguars and Emerging Italy at the Stadionul National Arcul de Triumf to succeed South African Kings as champions.Īll three sides had entered the final day with a mathematical chance of lifting the trophy, although the Jaguars needed a bonus-point win over Russia and then the unbeaten Romania and Emerging Italy to draw their winner-takes-all encounter to be crowned champions. Portugal, Romania, Russia and Uruguay all hope to emerge through the global qualifying process to take their place in England, while for the players of Emerging Italy and Argentina Jaguars it was an opportunity to show their respective national coaches that they can be stars of the future. There was more at stake than just the IRB Nations Cup title when six teams converged on the Romanian capital of Bucharest in June with the tournament regarded as an important stepping stone on the road to Rugby World Cup 2015.

Stadionul arcul de triumf