Moldova national rugby union team

Moldova played their first international on October 10, 1991 against Lithuania. Moldova won the match, 22 points to six. The next year they played against Bulgaria, which Moldova won, 42 points to three. Moldova played Hungary in 1995, which they won, by three points, 17 to 14.

They played Georgia, who defeated them 47 to five. They then played Ukraine and Latvia and Bulgaria soon after.

Moldova played twice in 1997, defeating Norway and losing to Croatia. They won a number of fixtures in 2000. They played the Netherlands the following year. The national rugby team was designated by the members of Moldova's Sports Press Association as the best Moldovan team in 2004. Following this, they played in qualifying tournaments for the 2007 Rugby World Cup European qualifiers. Moldova were grouped in Pool B of the second round, and they won two of their four matches, which saw them finish second in their pool behind Germany, and thus move onto round three and enter Pool A in round 3.

However, their road to the World Cup was ended when a respectful 2nd place above Poland, Netherlands and Andorra was not enough to proceed to round 4.

Surprisingly, the popularity of rugby in Moldova is growing rapidly, with well over 1,250 fans regularly turning up to their home matches in the European Nations Cup. Since 2004, the number of Moldovan rugby players has more than doubled, due to the national team's growing international reputation.

Moldovan international Alexei Cotruţa was the top try-scorer in the Russian Professional Rugby League in 2006, scoring 16 tries in 14 matches for Moscow-area side VVA-Podmoskovye.

During March 2011, Vadim Cobîlaş signed for Aviva Premiership side, Sale Sharks. Shortly after, his younger brother Maxim Cobîlaş also signed for Aviva Premiership side, Sale Sharks making the two the first Moldovan players to sign for a professional English team. More recently, props Dmitri Arhip and Gheorghe Gajion have signed for two Welsh regional sides, Cardiff Blues and Ospreys.

On the 23rd of August 2018, Cristian Ojovan another prop made his debut for D2 side Aurillacois. After his impressive performances at Aurillacois, George Ojovan signed with Top 14 champions Clermont Auvergne during October 2019.

This is Moldova`s current squad for the 2019-20 for Rugby Europe Conference 2 North.

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Sergiu Goncear	Hooker	Circa	1	Esztergomi Vitézek Rugby AFC
Marius Cardasim	Hooker	Circa 2001	2	RC Sporting ASEM
Valeriu Belous	Prop	Circa 2000	2	RC Ciorescu
Vlad Braniște	Prop	Circa	2	RC Sergus Soroca
Maxim Cobîlaș	Prop	(1986-08-12) 12 August 1986	?	VVA-Podmoskovie
Alexandru Colev	Prop	(1997-02-02) 2 February 1997	10	Unattached
Ruslan Dorogan	Prop	(1993-10-04) 4 October 1993	5	Clonakilty RFC
Andrei Lungu	Prop	Circa 1995	7	Kavallieri RFC
Tudor Cojocaru	Lock	Circa 1996	4	RC Sporting ASEM
Andrei Mahu	Lock	(1991-09-03) 3 September 1991	24	London Irish
Andrei Romanov	Lock	(1984-12-10) 10 December 1984	46	Unattached
Dorin Boțan	Flanker	Circa 1996	6	Unattached
Cristin Buzenco	Flanker	Circa 1993	2	CSR Sporting
Petru Crețu	Flanker	Circa	3	LIMPS
Igor Orghianu	Flanker	Circa 1991	6	RC Sporting ASEM
Sergiu Budaian	Number 8	Circa 1989	9	CR UTM
Grigore Pahom	Scrum-half	Circa 1999	2	Unione Rugbistica Anconitana
Vadim Preguza	Scrum-half	Circa 1993	14	RC Sporting ASEM
Ion Puică	Scrum-half	Circa 1987	3	CUS Perugia Rugby
Dumitru Bețliu	Fly-half	Circa 2000	1	RC Sporting ASEM
Mihai Golubenco (c)	Fly-half	(1994-11-21) 21 November 1994	20	Unattached
Alexandru Matveev	Fly-half	Circa 1989	3	RC Sporting ASEM
Alexandru Bulgac	Centre	Circa	1	Unattached
Ion Bușilă	Centre	Circa 1986	4	CSR Lupii Albi
Igor Mișin	Centre	Circa 1989	9	CR UTM
Ion Dinu	Wing	Circa	2	RC Ciorescu
Mihail Boian	Wing	Circa	9	Unattached
Ion Constantin	Wing	Circa 1997	8	RC Ciorescu
Adrian Adam	Fullback	Circa 1995	9	Unattached
Sandu Gritenco	Fullback	Circa 2001	1	RC Ciorescu
Alexei Isaac	Fullback	Circa 2000	2	RC Ciorescu

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