Despite scoring the only two tries of the match, Canada came up short in Bucharest as a last second penalty goal by Florin Vlaicu gave Romania a one point victory.

ROMANIA 21 vs 20 CANADA
Saturday, November 16, 17:00 GMT, Bucharest

Battered and bruised from the previous week’s encounter against Georgia, the Canadians had to scrape together a starting lineup, and under the circumstances did very well. They found success moving the ball around and created plenty of line breaks and scoring chances, but failing to capitalise on those chances was their undoing. Harry Jones missed two shots at goal and even the normally automatic James Pritchard missed one, while by contrast Vlaicu was a perfect 7-for-7, bisecting the posts each time with deadly accuracy.

The Oaks got on the board early with two early Vlaicu penalties, but a try for Tyler Ardron brought Canada back on it on 15 minutes. Marius Sirbe misjudged a restart and the visitors took full advantage of the mistake with Ardron, Jones, and Jebb Sinclair making metres to get within scoring range. A simple pop pass from Brett Beukeboom put the captain through a gap and Jones converted to take the lead.

A poor clearance kick from Jones was countered by Catalin Fercu, and after a couple phases Benoit Piffero was penalised for not rolling away. Vlaicu made no mistake and Romania was back in front. Florin Surugiu was sent to the bin for trip at the 25 minute mark, but Jones pulled the resulting penalty kick, and Canada failed to score with the man advantage. Instead Andrew Tiedemann was pinged for collapsing a scrum, and once again Vlaicu was on target to give his side a 12-7 lead heading into the break.

Jones found his range early in the second, just sneaking the ball inside the left upright after Romania were again pinged for not releasing at the tackle. A superb take from a high ball by Matt Evans kept the momentum up, and after Jeff Hassler nearly re-gathered his chip ahead to score himself, it was Jones who rounded off several attempts at the line, stepping through two front rowers to score Canada’s second try. The conversion was good and Canada were ahead for the second time.

The scrum ran into problems again and Vlaicu took another three, and after Jones pushed an attempt wide it was the Romanian centre again who made it look easy to steal the lead back and put the pressure on with a little more than 10 minutes to go. Pritchard was summoned from the bench and got his chance in a very kickable spot from about 40 metres, but he uncharacteristically sliced it and things were starting to look a bit grim.

As the Romanian defense tired the gaps opened and at last yielded another chance for Pritchard. This time he was on target, and the game was surely won, but Canada made a mess of the restart and instead Jones kicked it straight back into the hands of Fercu. The Oaks attacked left, and then right, and then Tiedemann was called for no attempt to wrap on a badly executed chop tackle. Vlaicu was on target and the Romanians celebrated as Canada stood in abject disappointment.

To the casual observer the Canadians surely looked the better side, moving the ball well and never allowing Romania to get within striking distance of the goal line, but that will be of no consolation after such a stinging defeat. They now trudge on to Lisbon in the hope of salvaging something from what has been a difficult tour. The Oaks meanwhile are one win against Fiji away from an undefeated season, a remarkable achievement after losing badly to both Japan and the USA at home this time last year.

SCORING
05 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 3-0
08 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 6-0
14 mins – T. Ardron try 6-5
15 mins – H. Jones con 6-7
17 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 9-7
34 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 12-7
43 mins – H. Jones pen 12-10
50 mins – H. Jones try 12-15
51 mins – H. Jones con 12-17
56 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 15-17
67 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 18-17
78 mins – J. Pritchard pen 18-20
80 mins – F. Vlaicu pen 21-20

CARDS
25 mins – F. Surugiu yellow (dangerous play)

ROMANIA
C. Fercu; I. Dumitru, C. Gal, F. Vlaicu, F. Ionita; V. Calafeteanu, F. Surugiu (G. Conache 61); M. Lazar (C. Pristavita 71), O. Turashvili (A. Radoi 59), P. Ion (H. Pungea 74); A. Coste, M. Sirbe (V. Poparlan 70); M. Macovei (capt.), V. Lucaci, S. Burcea (D. Lazar 51).

CANADA
M. Evans; J. Hassler, C. Hearn, N. Blevins (C. Trainor 39-40, 67), P. Mackenzie (J. Pritchard 67); H. Jones, P. Mack; H. Buydens, B. Piffero, A. Tiedemann; B. Beukeboom (J. Phelan 67), T. Hotson; J. Sinclair, N. Dala, T. Ardron (capt.).

Referee: G. Garner (RFU)
Assistants: M. Mitrea (FIR) & G. Vivarini (FIR)
TMO: J. Yuille (SRU)