Moldova national rugby union team

The Moldova national rugby union team, nicknamed Haiducii, are a Rugby Europe national team that play in the Conference 2 North competition and are administered by the Moldovan Rugby Federation. They are yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.

Moldova
Nickname(s)Haiducii (The Outlaws)
UnionMoldovan Rugby Federation
Head coachSergiu Motoc
CaptainMihai Golubenco
Most capsAndrei Romanov (46)
Top scorerOleg Prepelița (135)
Top try scorerOleg Prepelița (27)
Home stadiumComplexul Sportiv Raional Orhei
First colours
Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current59 (as of 23 November 2020)
Highest25 (2014)
Lowest59 (2020)
First international
 Moldova 22–6  Lithuania
(Moldova; 10 October 1991)
Biggest win
 Moldova 58–8  Malta
(Moldova; 18 November 2000)
Biggest defeat
 Sweden 80–6  Moldova
(Sweden; 20 October 2018)
World Cup
Appearances0
Websitewww.rugby.md

History

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.

Popularity

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.

Notable players

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.

Current squad

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
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.