IRE 82-8 ROU: Romania reaction (head coach Apjok, captain Chirica, Motoc, Rupanu)
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ON-FIELD REACTION
Cristian Chirica, captain
On his message to the people of Romania:
“Stay with us because as a small team we will fight with every drop of our energy to make them proud.”
On playing against number-one ranked team Ireland:
“It’s one of the greatest experiences as a player to be at a World Cup. That is why we are trying to enjoy it.”
Eugen Apjok, head coach
On what he was thinking after three minutes:
“We knew it would be a tough game, I’m happy for the good start, happy for the boys to score one try against the number one team in the rankings. We stayed in the game for 25 minutes and after that we lose a bit of control. When we get tired the mistake is coming.”
On where the differences between Romania are:
“The individual performances, the fitness level. We gave them a lot of fast ball in the ruck in the second half which made it easy for them.”
On playing the number one team in the world, then the number two, South Africa:
“And after that, the number five team in the world! [Scotland]. For sure it will be another hard one for us, but we have a very young team and we need to take this experience and take it with us into the next cycle.”
MEDIA CONFERENCE
Eugen Apjok, head coach
On Romania's kicking game:
"In the first half I think it worked, especially in the first 25-30 minutes, but when we got tired there was no kick-chase."
On what Romania needs to work on to avoid another heavy defeat:
"The reality is this is the difference between us (tier two teams) and the others (tier one teams). Of course we're not happy about this (heavy defeat, but) we can't make miracles in a few days. Mentally we have a very young team - 23 players today were playing in their first World Cup and many of them had never played in front of so many spectators before, and it will be a very educational experience for them."
Cristian Chirica, captain
On what Romania need to work on for their next game:
"Most of all our defence."
On playing against top nations:
"Yes, it's difficult because we're a small country but we're going to work very hard in every game to progress, to play a good game and try and get closer to the level of teams like Ireland and South Africa."
MIXED ZONE
Adrian Motoc, lock
On playing against a high-level team with some of the best players in the world:
“You knew it would be hard. We made a very good start by scoring the first try of the game. We played well during the first 20 minutes. Afterwards, you could feel there was a gap between the two teams. It’s the number-one-ranked team in the world, with plenty of players who have a lot of matches at the highest level under their belt.”
On the good start:
“At 5-0 on the scoreboard, we were wondering what was happening. We executed our strategy in the first 20 minutes. But when the Irish started impacting us and raised their level of physicality, it became hard for us.”
On Romania fly-half Hinckley Vaovasa:
“He is a very good player. He can play fly-half, centre and full-back. I’m so happy for him. He is playing some very good games and I hope he’ll keep it up in the future.”
Gabriel Rupanu, scrum-half
"It was a great experience, there's a lot of things we can learn from this.
"I am very happy to score a try. Last night I was thinking about this and today it happened. My family are watching on the TV and they are very supportive. Moving forward we will have to look at the errors that we made and we'll hope not to repeat them in our next matches."
