A 100-YEAR RUGBY JUBILEE
WITH ROMANIAN SAINT SUN
AND VIRACOCHA'S SUN

COSMIC ROMANIA 27

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

A long time ago
I learned that the Earth
elliptically moves around the Sun,
but I never learned that perhaps
this inspired the oval shape
of a rugby ball.

Rugby…

I don’t know a more complex game…

Founded in 1823 as a branch of classical football by a student,
William Web Ellis,
in the Rugby College (England, UK),
rugby involves courage, force, intelligence, bravery, strategy, tactics,
speed, solidarity, fair play, dynamic orientation…

With such necessary qualities for a rugby team,
it is not surprising that this game defeated politics
(for instance, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland present
an united selected team for international matches)
and geography
(for instance, an Argentinean selected team, Pampas 15,
played in a South African national competition, the Vodafone Cup,
or Italian franchises played in the Celtic League
with Welsh, Scottish and Irish franchises),
and racially unified a nation
(South Africa in 1995,
when whites and blacks sustained together the national team
in winning the 3rd Rugby World Cup).

Romania has had interesting contributions to the history of this game
especially as a regional leader able to produce surprises to the elite world.

Thus, the first rugby match in this country took place in 1913.

Soon after, in 1919
the Romanian national team participated at
the Interallied Games (the Pershing Olympiad) in Paris,
where it was categorically defeated by France and USA,
obtaining the 3rd place.

In 1924
at the Olympic Games in Paris
similar results for the Romanian national team
against the same adversaries,
but the 3rd place obtained there
represented the first Olympic medal in Romanian sport history,
and that heroic team was included after over 90 years
in the Rugby Hall of Fame.

Then, in the interbellic period,
Romania became the 4th force in Continental Europe and North Africa
after France, Germany and Italy,
but before Czechoslovakia, Holland, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Morocco etc.

And probably the most interesting moments for the Romanian rugby were:
-In 1926 the match between Romania and French Army (won by guests)
inaugurated the biggest stadium in Romania (ONEF) for that time.
-In 1936 Romania became, along with a few other countries, co-founder of FIRA,
a board created by France for spreading the game of rugby all over the world.
-In 1936 and 1937 Romania obtained the 4th place
at the Preolympic Tournament in Berlin and at the World Fair in Paris.
-In 1938 Romania obtained the 3rd place
at the European Championship in Bucharest,
but made an excellent match against France (score 8-11).
-In 1940 Romania won its first international trophy,
the Northern Transylvania Cup,
defeating for the first time Italy at Bucharest (3-0).

After World War II
Romania
(becoming by force a communist country)

authoritatively consolidated its 1st position in East Europe
(through victories against Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Polish and Yugoslav teams),

made the best result at the International Festival of Workers
in France in 1948
(defeating the French syndical team, 13-12,
and two other French teams),

won the rugby tournaments of the World Festival of Youth and Students
at Bucharest in 1953
(defeating a French syndical team
and a secondary youth team from Australasia),
and at Moscow in 1957
(defeating a Welsh team -6-3 over Llanelly RFC-,
and Czechoslovakia),

won its matches (against West Germany and Spain,
bronze medalists at the last European Championships in 1952 and 1954,
and the best teams in West Continental Europe after France and Italy)
at the World Fair in Brussels in 1958,

and also won all six editions of the Peace Cup
(against Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and Bulgaria
in a veritable East-European championship) in 1959-1964.

(It is interesting that in 1974 Bulgaria tried to repeat this eastern championship
as an octagonal named the Albena Trophy,
which was also won by Romania, 29-0 in the final against the Soviet Union,
represented by its champion, FILI Moscow.
In 1976, a similar Bulgarian initiative, won by Romania, too:
100-0 Bulgaria and 14-3 Soviet Union.)

The 1950s brought crescent rugby relations with France,
materialized though special visits to Bucharest,
from which the most important were
(the Romanian selected team usually played as Locomotiva or Bucharest):
-Locomotiva - Perpignan
(vice-champion of France in 1952) 27-3 in 1953!
-Bucharest - Ile de France 6-0 in 1955!
-Romania - France 15-18 (a superb Romanian reply!) in 1957
(in rugby, close losses to super-teams mean sometimes more than victories)!

The 1950s also brought the first matches with British teams
(Home Union for this game),
in which the Romanian selected team played also at Locomotiva or Bucharest.

Thus, in 1954 Locomotiva defeated at Bucharest
the famous Welsh team of Swansea, 23-12!

In the next two years the Bucharest team
played six matches in the UK with the best Welsh and English clubs
and obtained amazing results:
19-3 Swansea, 3-6 Cardiff, 9-9 Harlequins London in 1955,
6-6 Leicester, 10-6 Gloucester, 6-6 Bristol in 1956.

Not in the least, the first English club that visited Romania,
Harlequins London,
played at Bucharest against the local team,
which won, 14-10, in 1956.

But personally I think that it was extraordinary that,
during the terrible years of the Iron Curtain,
the force of the Romanian rugby could make possible matches
between the Romanian Capital and the selected teams
of the Capitals of the strongest powers in the northern hemisphere:
-Bucharest – Paris 6-0 in 1954!
-Bucharest - London (in fact, a multinational team) 3-11 in 1957.
-Bucharest - Cardiff 6-3 in 1957!

Then the relations with the British teams were abandoned for a while,
but in 1960 the match between France and Romania became yearly.
And the first results were rather shocking:
-Romania - France 11-5 in 1960.
-France - Romania 5-5 in 1961.
-Romania – France 3-0 in 1962 (when Romania also defeated Italy, 14-6).
-France – Romania 6-6 in 1963.
-Romania – France 6-9 in 1964.

In 1965 France and FIRA brought a new vision in international rugby,
initiating the FIRA Trophy,
the championship of Continental Europe and North Africa,
which was organized on value divisions.

Always in the first division,
in the first 21 editions (till 1987) Romania obtained
five times the 1st place,
eleven times the 2nd place,
four times the 3rd place,
and once the 4th place,
but it is interesting that France
(the authoritative continental leader)
preferred to use the best team only against Romania
in this competition.

And it is extraordinary that Romania defeated five times France in Bucharest:
15-14 in 1968, 15-10 in 1974, 15-12 in 1976, 15-0 in 1980, 13-9 in 1982,
and made a few other close matches (for instance,
in 1972 at Valence, France defeated Romania, 7-6, through an incorrect try,
and in 1977 and 1978 there were three identical scores, 9-6 for France).

The second important adversary was Italy (now a tear-1 team),
which Romania defeated nine times: 24-3 in 1967, 32-6 in 1971, 69-0 in 1977,
44-0 in 1979, 35-9 in 1981, 13-6 in 1983, 7-6 in 1985, 9-3 in 1987 (all in Bucharest)
and 14-3 in 1970 (in Italy).

The third important adversary was the Soviet Union
(newcomer in the FIRA Trophy since 1979,
and “step mother” for more important future teams in European rugby,
Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania),
which Romania defeated in 7 of 8 matches.

The other adversaries from the first division
(Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Portugal, Poland, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia),
with a few exceptions, did not put problems to the Romanian national team.

Parallelly, the 1970s opened new borders for Romanian rugby,
which expanded its relations into the entire world
and also renewed those with the Home Union (the British Islands).

Thus, in 1973 Romania played 6 matches in Argentina
(the strongest rugby country in the American continent),
the best of them being a victory against the national champion,
San Isidor Club Buenos Aires (19-10),
and a close loss in the first test with Pumas (9-15).

In the spring of 1975 Romania played 8 matches
in the strongest rugby country of the world, New Zealand,
against some of the best teams,
and made a very good impression:
19-12 Poverty Bay, 14-9 Waikato, 9-28 Manawatu, 0-3 North Auckland,
21-6 Marloborough, 12-9 Southland, 4-12 South Canterbury,
and, after an exceptional evolution,
10-10 against All Blacks Juniors (under 23)!

In the autumn of the same year, as a response,
Romania was visited by an important team from New Zealand,
Waitemata,
and spectacularly won, 23-12.

In 1977 Dinamo Bucharest replaced the Romanian national team
for a tournament in the Soviet Union,
where it gave an admirable reply to a famous selected and invitational
British team,
Penguins (score 9-20).

In 1978 Romania (as the Bucharest team)
visited again the United Kingdom for 7 matches,
and in the most important of them made extraordinary results:
7-7 Swansea (champion of Wales),
30-28 Gloucester (champion of England)
and 49-12 London Scottish (champion of London)!

In 1979 Romania played 5 matches in Wales,
obtaining 4 victories (12-0 Ebbw Vale, 9-3 Pontypridd,
38-15 North Wales and 15-11 West Wales)
and losing in the last minutes the test,
12-13 Wales (winner of the Grand Slam in the last 5 Nations tournament).

In 1980, at Bucharest, Romania (playing as South Romania)
defeated the inter-provinces champion of Ireland, Leinster (10-4),
then visited Ireland for 5 matches, defeating 3 of 4 provinces
(32-9 Munster, 15-13 Ulster and 28-9 Conacht)
and obtaining a spectacular equal in the test with the Irish national team, 13-13,
and finally made a halt in England,
where it defeated the last national champion, Leicester, with an incredible 39-7!

In 1981
Romania made a Scottish tournament
winning the best franchises, Edinburgh (18-13) and South Scotland (18-10),
before losing the test with Scotland (6-12 after a match without tries).

In the same year
Romania received the visit of the best team in the world,
New Zealand or the (almost) invincible All Blacks,
and gave an amazing reply,
score 6-14,
but the referee annulated 2 Romanian correct tries…

In 1982 Romania visited Zimbabwe
(the best African rugby country after its neighbor South Africa)
and won the tests, 25-23 and 25-24.

In 1983 and 1984 Romania obtained in Bucharest two sensational victories:
24-6 against Wales
and 28-22 against Scotland
(the last winner of the Grand Slam in the last 5 Nations tournament)!

And soon after, in January 1885, on Twickenham in London,
England - Romania 22-15
(the hosts marking the decisive try in the last minute!)

Unfortunately, this Romanian golden generation began to tire,
but, after a few contra-performances (with France, Soviet Union and Ireland),
it made a last demonstration of force during the World Club Championship
that took place in France in December 1986.
Here, the champion club of Romania, Farul Constanta,
benefitting by the temporary transfers of other Romanian internationals,
defeated the champion of New Zealand, Ponsonby (18-15), in the quarter finals,
the vice-champion of France, Agen (10-3), in the semifinals,
and lost the final against the champion of France, Toulouse (3-47).

So, as a conclusion before the first Rugby World Cup,
we can say that in the first international era of rugby
(which began in 1871 with a Scotland - England match),
the brave Romanian rugby players made from their country
the best team out of the classical International Rugby Board countries
(England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland - as the home countries -,
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa - as the southern super-powers-,
and France - as the permanent guest out of the English language countries).

The first Rugby World Cup took place in 1987 in New Zealand
and hosted the best 16 national teams in the world
(except for South Africa, still tributary to the apartheid politics).
It was the best occasion to wake up the pride of the classical IRB countries,
so that Romania, after a victory against Zimbabwe (21-20),
lost to France (12-55, after 12-12 in the first round) and Scotland (28-55).
Too little for the memory of the older times,
but enough to conserve a place among the first 12 nations of the planet.

Till the next Rugby World Cup,
Romanian rugby had oscillating results:
contra-performances with France, England, Soviet Union,
and even USA (7-17 in 1988 in Russia),
only two 3rd places in the FIRA Trophy (1987-1989 and 1990-1991),
the 2nd place in 1990 in the preliminary tournament for the World Cup 1991
(winning Spain and Holland, and losing to Italy),
but also brilliant successes coming as a swan song of Romanian superlative rugby:
-In 1988, 12-3 Italy at Milano, plus two magnificent replies to
the silver medalist and the bronze medalist at the World Cup 1887:
12-16 France in Bucharest and 15-9 Wales at Cardiff
(the first victory of a team from out of the IRB classics in a test in the UK!).
-In 1989 in Bucharest: 28-4 Italy, 52-17 Zimbabwe,
32-24 Samoa (a terrible rugby nation from the Pacific).
-In 1990, after the fall of communism, a spring of great results and hopes
in freedom: 16-9 Italy at Frascatti,
12-6 France (current world vice-champion!) at Auch,
38-10 British Police at Bucharest.
-Also in 1990, a great honour, the creation of the Skilball Trophy,
contested between the British selected team (Four Home Unions)
and Continental Europe (score 43-18),
which played under the emblem of the Romanian Rugby Federation
and included 4 Romanian players.
-And in 1991, 28-22 Scotland at Bucharest
(the last Romanian victory against a Home Union country).

Also in 1991, Romania was honored to make a new tournament
in New Zealand (world champion),
this time playing adversaries from the 1-3 divisions:
26-18 Wanganui, 48-12 Horowhenua, 25-32 Wairapa Bush, 17-24 Hawkes Bay,
28-6 King Combination, 30-7 Thames Valley,
and (the best match) 30-17 Counties Manakau (a former inter-dominions champion),
plus a test lost (30-60) to New Zealand XV (in fact, the national youth team).

But at the World Cup 1991 in France,
Romania disappointed again
(missing too many opportunities for much better results):
3-30 France, 11-19 Canada (after a severe Romanian territorial domination)
and (happily) a beautiful 19-17 against Fiji (the champion of the Pacific).
So, again among the first 12 teams of the world.

Till the next World Cup,
the decline of Romanian rugby accented:
the support from the Romanian state became much smaller,
the interest of the youth for this game considerably reduced,
and many Romanian rugby players began to go to France
and other stronger championships,
forgetting to come back to the national team.

In these conditions all that remained from that period are:
-Two 3rd places and a few insignificant victories in the FIRA Trophy
(1990-92 and 1992-94).
-Two special victories home,
34-6 against the Independent States Community (former Soviet Union) in 1992
and 26-12 with Italy in 1994.
-Severe defeats to tier-1 nations:
France, Ireland, England and Scotland.
-A new qualification to the World Cup
(due to a decisive match, 60-6 Germany in 1994).
-An exotic tournament in Japan in 1995
(30-25 Japan A and 21-34 Japan).
-Three (the last!) honorable losses (home) to tier-1 nations:
18-21 Argentina (1992), 9-16 Wales (1994), 15-24 France (1995).

Then the 1st match and the 3rd match at the World Cup in South Africa
were disastrous for Romania: 3-34 Canada and 3-42 Australia,
but in the 2nd match the Romanians realized a remarkable reply to the
host (and the winner) of this edition: score 8-21.

And thus,
Romania ended the last major moment of amateurism in rugby
among the first 16 teams of the planet,
but if we make a synthesis of what happened in between 1871 and 1995,
we can place Romania on the 10th place in the world,
after the 8 classical rugby nations and Argentina.

The introduction of professionalism in rugby after World Cup 1995
radically changed the general aspects in this game,
the financial, traditional and educational differences
between the advanced nations and the rest of the world
becoming much bigger and being directly reflected in results.

In this context Romania became a tier-2 nation,
and could hope, as the best performances,
to lose with differences smaller than 20 points to the great teams.
But that was hardly realizable.

(Practically, after the 2000s
the new international image around this game showed:
10 tier-1 nations and 8 tier-2 nations as the group of high performance,
5 nations as the group of performance
and the rest of over 100 nations.
So that, being a very difficult and expensive game,
in spite of the numerous regional competitions
-South America, Central America, Americas, Pacific, Oceania,
Asia, Africa and Continental Europe-,
rugby began to seem like a hardly accessible rich club of 10 nations,
6 in the North Hemisphere
(England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy)
and 4 in the South Hemisphere
(New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina),
playing their annual home competitions,
interfering through summer and autumn super-tests,
and sponsoring the international rugby development,
only the Rugby World Cup (20 participating teams since 1999)
remaining as a real chance for the rest of the world
after cycles of 4 years.)

Thus, participating at the two editions of a new competition, the Latin Cup,
Romania was categorically defeated by France, Argentina and Italy in 1995 and 1997,
and suffered other hard losses to Wales and Scotland,
so the 3rd place in the FIRA Trophy (after France and Italy) in 1995-97,
along with a few categorical victories against European adversaries (such as
92-0 Portugal, 83-18 Belgium, 74-13 Poland, 42-3 Holland),
could not compensate this uncomfortable situation.

However, in 1997 a honorable Romania - Wales A (the second national team) 33-42,
and at Dublin in 1998, a beam of hope:
27-13 Georgia, 35-53 Ireland,
and the 4th qualification for the World Cup.

But in 1999, at this major competition in the UK
(by the way, a Rugby World Cup means the second game competition
after the Football World Cup by popularity!),
Romania could not outrun its condition:
9-57 Australia, 27-25 USA (a splendid victory, however)
14-44 Ireland, and a place among the first 15 teams of the world.

After World Cup 1999
Italy was admitted as a tier-1 nation and included in the Five Nations tournament,
while the FIRA Trophy (left by France and Italy)
was transformed into the European Nations Cup.
Romania (always in the ENC first division with 6 teams that, in that cycle,
were, with some alternations,
Holland, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Georgia, Russia and Czechia)
obtained the 1st place in 2000 and the 2nd place in 2001,
but till World Cup 2003 it showed rather a collapse to the great northern powers,
being outperformed in tests with France, Italy, Ireland, Wales and England,
only a Scottish tournament in November 2002 appearing as honorable:
18-21 Scotland A and 10-37 Scotland.

Fortunately, a French coach came to stop in part this collapse,
and Romania qualified for World Cup 2003
(17-25 Italy at Parma and 67-6 Spain at Iasi in 2002)
and won ENC 2002-2003.

However, sentimentally, that hard period brought a few charming memories:
-In 2000 Romania was visited by New Zealand A (score 9-82,
but in rugby to be accepted to fight with the strongest adversaries
is an immense honour),
the match being opened even by the Romanian President.
-In 2001 Romania defeated in the UK (21-11) Cambridge University
(one of the two heroes of the famous yearly Varsity Match founded in 1872,
the oldest between two universities, Oxford and Cambridge).
-In 2002 and 2003,
two Romanian victories against French and English national selected teams,
but from the 3rd leagues of these countries:
France Federale - Romania 20-28
and Romania - England Counties 45-23!

Then, at World Cup 2003 in Australia,
Romania remained among the first 16 teams of the world:
17-45 Ireland, 8-90 Australia (world champion in 1999
and world vice-champion in 2003), 3-50 Argentina and 37-7 Namibia.

More, in the IRB ranking, inaugurated in the autumn of 2003,
Romania was placed for a short time on the 13th position.

Till World Cup 2007, Romania was again outperformed (over 30 points)
in tests with Wales, Ireland, France and Scotland
(only a honorable reply, Romania - Scotland 19-39 in 2005),
and, as a consequence, that was the last cycle
in which the classical rugby nations accepted such matches.

However, that cycle brought a few interesting results for Romanian rugby:
-The 2nd place in ENC 2003-2004 and the 1st place in ENC 2005-2006,
in competition with Portugal, Georgia, Spain, Russia, Czechia and Ukraine.
-A participation at the IRB Supercup
(the tier-2 championship dedicated to the largest countries) in Japan in 2005,
where Romania was the 4th
(16-23 Japan in semifinals and 22-28 USA for the 3rd place).
-Three superb victories in Bucharest:
25-24 Italy (the first and last victory against a tier-1 adversary
after the introduction of professionalism) and 25-10 Japan in 2004,
22-20 Canada in 2006.
-The 6th qualification for the Rugby World Cup
(20-8 Georgia and 43-20 Spain in 2006).
These results returned again Romania to the 13th position in the IRB ranking
at the end of 2006.

In June 2007, a fine surprise:
Romania was chosen to organize the 2nd edition of the IRB Nations Cup
(dedicated especially to the emerging nations),
a competition with 6 teams, each of them playing 3 matches.
The Romanian results: 7-61 Emerging Springboks (the perspective national team
of South Africa), 19-8 Italy A, 28-16 Namibia, and the 4th place.

Then, at World Cup 2007 in France and the UK,
Romania remained again among the first 16 teams of the world:
18-24 Italy, 0-42 Scotland, 14-10 Portugal and 8-85 New Zealand.

The first part of the new cycle was rather catastrophic for Romanian rugby:
3rd place in ENC 2007-2008 and 4th place in ENC 2009.

In these conditions,
a new leadership assumed the renascence of this game in Romania,
and another French coach came for one year to save the national team.
And he did it in three major steps:
-The maximum of points at Challenge Vaquerin 2009 (18-3 Narbonne and 26-7 Albi),
a yearly international rugby festival organized in France.
-A honorable evolution in Romania - Fiji (quarter finalist at World Cup 2007
and the 10th in the IRB ranking) 18-29 in November 2009,
a match that celebrated 100 years since the rugby game was presented
for the first time in Romania.
-The 1st place in ENC 2010 (67-5 Germany, 21-21 Russia, 22-10 Georgia,
20-9 Portugal, 48-3 Spain),
which was followed, this time with a Romanian coach, by the 2nd place in 2011.

At the same time, it is to note that Romania organized four other editions of
the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest, obtaining the following places:
3 in 2008, 4 in 2009, 2 in 2010 and 5 in 2011.
Romania defeated here Uruguay, Russia and Namibia,
but made the best matches against the teams sent by the tier-1 nations:
13-25 Emerging Springboks in 2008, 16-20 France A in 2009,
24-8 Argentina Jaguars and 22-17 Italy A in 2010,
23-27 South African Kings in 2011.

However the most captivating episode for Romania in that cycle was
the tentative to catch the 20th place for the World Cup
during a veritable secondary world championship,
in which the Romanian players began by defeating
Ukraine in the quarter finals (33-3 and 61-7).
Then, in the semifinals,
while the 4th team in America (and the 2nd in South America),
Uruguay, defeated the 2nd team in Asia, Kazakhstan,
Romania defeated the 3rd African team, Tunisia, 56-13 at Bucharest.
Then Romania won the final,
21-21 (at Montevideo) and 39-12 (at Bucharest) against Uruguay.

But at World Cup 2011 in New Zealand,
after an excellent match with Scotland (24-32),
Romania clearly lost all (8-43 Argentina, 3-67 England, 9-25 Georgia).

The first year of the new cycle was rather contradictory for Romanian rugby:
only the 3rd place in ERN 2012,
followed by the first final win in the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest
(29-9 Uruguay, 23-21 Argentina Jaguars, and 17-13 Italy A
in a dramatic final in which 5 Romanian players went directly to the hospital),
a honorable loss to Japan (23-34),
and the 19th place in the IRB ranking.

So another foreign coach (this time a Welsh one)
was called to improve the evolution of the national team
right when Romanian rugby turned 100 years of existence.
And he began with the 2nd place in the ENC 2013:
19-13 Portugal, 29-14 Russia, 25-15 Spain, 32-14 Belgium
and 9-9 Georgia (after three consecutive lost marches).

Then in June 2013, to honor the Romanian jubilee,
the IRB gave to the Romanian Federation the right to organize in Bucharest
the 8th edition of the Nations Cup, this time with 4 teams:
Russia
(as the Eurasian representative),
Emerging Italy
(the perspective national team of a 6 Nations representative),
Argentina Jaguars
(the selected team of the Argentinean championship,
recent winner of the South American Championship
and the IRB Americas Championship),
and Romania
(the tier-2 nation with the most numerous victories against the tier-1 nations).

Obviously, I could not miss this event…
in connection with the apparent motion of the Sun.

DAY 1
(8 June 2013)

The Sun was embarrassed by clouds,
but he was able to ensure a delicate twilight.

ROMANIA - RUSSIA 30-20

EMERGING ITALY - ARGENTINA JAGUARS 26-6

DAY 2
(12 June 2013)

I was glad to see Viracocha’s Sun on the Argentinean flag.
Viracocha, the Inca deity, was the creator god,
who made the Universe, Sun, Moon, stars, storms…
His son, Inti, became the Sun God,
and inspired the Sun of May,
the symbol of Argentinean independence,
which was obtained in 1812…

Firstly the sunset was friendlier over the Bucharest national rugby stadium
(because the “Romanian Sun” traditionally is
a bright, young, beautiful and strong saint),
but stormy clouds came soon after it,
and a terrible rain…

ROMANIA - ARGENTINA JAGUARS 30-8

EMERGING ITALY - RUSSIA 27-19

DAY 3
(16 June 2013)

It was for the first time when I saw the Moon over this stadium
during an international match,
and I felt the natural satellite smiling
when a famous Romanian soprano performed the national anthem.

Then the sunset was fascinating,
Romania won the trophy,
and all ended though a show of fireworks.

“These are not real stars!”
I finally thought and I went home.

ARGENTINA JAGUARS - RUSSIA 30-17

ROMANIA - EMERGING ITALY 26-13

Here, thinking that the IRB Nations Cup 2013
had a high guest, Viracocha’s Sun,
I chose the most beautiful photographic sunrise series
(with Saint Sun, if we accord to Romanian traditions)
which I caught in that period (13 June 2013)
and I dedicated it to the Romanian 100-Year Rugby Jubilee.

A 100-YEAR RUGBY JUBILEE WITH ROMANIAN SAINT SUN AND VIRACOCHA'S SUN

A 100-YEAR RUGBY JUBILEE
WITH ROMANIAN SAINT SUN
AND VIRACOCHA'S SUN