Romania too strong for Japan

The Oaks of Romania beat Japan 25-10 before two thousand spectators at Ghencea II Stadion in Bucharest on Saturday, the second ever encounter between the two teams after Japan won in Tokyo in 1995. They scored three tries the last in injury time by Petrisor Toderasc.

It took the more powerful Oaks just two minutes to get on the scoreboard. After an intercept flank Marian Tudori scored. Experienced Ionut Tofan converted.

Japan attacked from the kick-off and soon afterwards outside centre Seiichi Shimomura kicked a penalty goal. 7-3 after four minutes.

Romania attacked for a long period with excellent scoring opportunities which went astray till Tofan kicked his second penalty. 10-3 after 25 minutes.

Romeo Gontineac fed fellow centre Cristian Sauan who scored. Tofan converted which brought the score at half-time to 17-3.

Japan came back in the second half when Japan's captain Takuro Miuchi scored a try which Shimomura converted. 17-10 after 53 minutes.

Then Tofan kicked his second penalty goal and in injury time replacement prop Petrisor Toderasc scored the final try of the match.

Scorers:

For Romania:
Tries: Tudori, Sauan, Toderasc
Cons: Tofan 2
Pens: Tofan 2

For Japan:
Try: Miuchi
Con: Shimomura
Pen: Shimomura

Yellow card: Mersoiu (Romania)

Teams:

Romania: 15 Valentin Maftei, 14 Bogdan Voicu, 13 Cristian Sauan, 12 Romeon Gontineac, 11 Ioan Teodorescu, 10 Ionut Tofan, 9 Valentin Calafeteanu, 7 Marian Tudori, 8 Alin Petrache (capitan), 6 Costica Mersoiu, 5 Cristian Petre 4 George Oprisor, 3 Marcel Socaciu, 2 Razvan Mavrodin, 1 Petru Balan
Replacements: 16 Bogdan Zebega, 17 Cezar Popescu, 18 Petrisor Toderasc, 19 Valentin Ursache, 20 Iulian Andrei, 21 Ionut Dimofte, 22 Danut Dumbrava

Japan: 15 Ryohei Miki, 14 Koichiro Kubota, 13 Seiichi Shimomura, 12 Masatoshi Mukoyama, 11 Hiroki Mizuno, 10 Hideyuki Yoshida, 9 Kiyonori Tanaka, 7 Takatoyo Yamaguchi, 8 Takuro Miuchi (capitan), 6 Naoya Okubo, 5 Hajime Kiso, 4 Takanori Kumagai, 3 Ryo Yamamura, 2 Takashi Yamaoka, 1 Masahito Yamamoto
Replacements: 16 Mitsugu Yamamoto, 17 Yuichi Hisadomi, 18 Hitoshi Ono, 19 Feletliki Mau, 20 Wataru Ikeda, 21 Yukio Motoki, 22 Hayato Daimon

Referee: Donal Courtney (Ireland)