Romania’s national rugby team has returned home from the World Cup in France, with coach Eugen Apjok saying that “it’s easy to get muddled when you don’t know the reality of Romanian rugby”.

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Apjok says, among other things, that Romanian rugby cannot be compared to the great nations of the sport.

“It’s easy to throw stones and dirt. We all knew there would be tough times, but the reality in rugby is very different. We have to see the small number of legitimate players, the very small selection area that we have, the poverty of the rugby clubs, the infrastructure that is almost non-existent in Romanian rugby.

If they complain about football, then why not say that we don’t even have a stadium. How can you get kids into rugby if you don’t have a stadium, a field with changing rooms where you can shower after training?

Between rugby, volleyball and handball, it is clear that that child will go to other disciplines, in the heat, it is not in the mud, where there is nowhere to take a shower. And these are normal conditions, because the countries we played with are of a completely different level.

Throwing stones is very easy. Everything comes down to the financial part. We have no way to compare ourselves when we have a budget 100 times smaller than the countries we played in the World Cup. Even Georgia has a budget 15 times larger than ours. They have 29 million euros, and we have less than 2 million. So what are we talking about?

All the big countries have help from governments and sponsors, but you get sponsors after you get results. Tonga is not the same as it was two years ago, they naturalized former All Blacks and from the Australian national team, they have players playing in the first leagues in England and France and we played 85% of the players from the domestic league. .

This is reality. We have to admit and depending on what potential we have, move on, because we are, bitter, that’s all” – Evgeny Apzhokat Henri Coand airport, Agerpres quotes.

The goal of victory was not achieved

“We knew in advance what was waiting for us, we knew in advance the difference between us and our opponents. I said that our goal is to win, and that was in the last match against Tonga, but unfortunately we didn’t do it.

Sure, the score difference in the first three games was big, but that’s the reality at the moment. Let’s not forget that there is a young group in the national team, more than 80% will make up the next cycle of the World Cup.

And for them, the experience of this World Cup, even if it was painful in terms of results, will help them a lot in the future.

Reality is cruel, such players only meet such opponents once every four years. Although they were well prepared, but you will not be good on the field if you only play for four years in such teams” – Evgeny Apzhok.

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There are also positives for Romania after participating in the Rugby World Cup in France

Although it may be hard to believe after a modest presence at the finals in France, coach Eugen Appyok says there is a positive side to the Ox’s run at the world finals.

“This is a new group, a group of young people, it depends on them what they learned at the World Cup and what they will apply in practice from now on. Because, although it is hard to believe, there were also positives and not only negatives at the World Cup.

Results aside, there is hope and these players have proven at times that they have potential. I am convinced that they will progress. But the hardest work comes from now on.

They need to put into practice what they have learned here and not just be passengers in the World Cup. It is clear that the preparation was not as desired. We wanted to do an internship in the mountains and an internship in team building, but it didn’t work out due to lack of money.

He only stayed in Bucharest, in that hellish heat, it was a very difficult period for the players, because they only trained on the 2nd pitch and not on the main one… These are of course things that affected, but we don’t want put everything on your account” – Evgeny Apzhok.

Apyok noted that in addition to Florin Surugiu and Andriy Gorchoaia, who ended their national team careers after the World Cup, there are 2-3 more players who will leave the team.

“Any player that leaves is a loss. Probably, we will not have the current 4-5 for the next campaign of the Emergency, two have already been announced.

But there are still some age restrictions that can play in the qualification, but I’m not sure that they will be able to make it to the 2027 World Cup,” he concluded. Evgeny Apzhok.

Romania’s results at the 2023 Rugby World Cup: Stežari lost

Ireland-Romania 82-8

South Africa-Romania 76-0

Scotland-Romania 84-0

Tonga – Romania 45-24