Scouting Report

The gap in expectations between the leading contenders at the World Cup and the emerging nations was summed up yesterday when it was announced that Lynn Howells, the former Edinburgh head coach, had been rewards for his efforts with a new two year contract.

Only one team in the tournament has a worse record in statistical terms, Uruguay having a points differential of –107 to Romania’s – 61, neither team having come close to picking up a losing bonus point in their two matches, but recognition of the realisation of where they were when the Welshman took charge came from Mihai Macovei, their captain when he said of the new deal struck between governing body and the coach: “We’ve become a more disciplined team with him as head coach. I hope he will stay with us. He will bring more to the team.”

For his part Howells sees it as a temporary measure in much the same way as Richie Dixon, the former Scotland coach did when he had charge of Georgia at the last World Cup.

Instrumental in Howells’ recruitment, Dixon’s subsequent reversion to an overseeing role in both Romania and Georgia has proved vital in the development of both and the plan to ensure continuity is clear.

““I’m pleased for myself but I’m also pleased to take the Romanian team to the next level, which will be exciting,” said Howells.

“That’s part of the legacy that I have to leave. If I have done my job I’m hoping that by the end of the second year we would have put in place a head coach to take the team to Japan.

“If I can do that and then revert back to technical adviser that would probably be the right way to go.”

As one of four coaches hoping today to finish on a high, he knows victory over Canada, also without a win to this stage, would help speed the process along and for all that today’s matches look like house-keeping in tournament terms their importance to those taking part is clear.

“They’ve worked hard. Now it’s time to go and produce a result and it’s time now for the players to go out and play their best rugby,” said Howells.

“The difficult thing for the players is at the moment the camp is very nervous. They want to go out and play and they want to get the game underway.”

While this is more of a game of equals than their previous two matches against France and Ireland, Howells is expecting to encounter similar challenges against their fellow Tier Two side.

“We expect it to be a more loose game than we’ve experienced before but it certainly won’t be anything less than what we’ve experienced against France and Ireland and by that I mean the width of the game,” he said.

“We have to try to play the way Romania wants to play, not the way Canada wants to play.”

It is expected to be a more evenly contested match than the day’s other game where Fiji, who were extremely unlucky in the pool they found themselves in, are expected to run up a substantial score against Uruguay if they have the appetite to do so.