JOHN Long is best known in Scottish rugby as Edinburgh Wanderers'
Irishman who was the instigator of the Saltires, the touring rugby club
whose jersey, inevitably, is dark blue with a white St Andrew's Cross.
In his time, too, he has been connnected with rugby in Wales and the
Gulf, and he has turned up here in Edinburgh this week in yet another
guise. Romania have brought him along as technical coaching adviser for
the Rugby World Cup Sevens at Murrayfield at the weekend.
It is yet another chapter in the globetrotting tale of a descendant of
Robert Louis Stevenson, and to cut short a Long story, ''Jonty'' is now
based in Bucharest as Shell's retail manager in Romania. Being the rugby
fanactic that he is, he was not long in developing connections in the
Romanian game.
Word of his seven-a-side nous with the Saltires soon filtered through
to the national rugby federation, and when Romania received the
invitation to the Murrayfield tournament they turned to Long for advice.
As he himself explained, Romanian rugby is still in crisis after the
coup d'etat three years ago, and their sevens knowledge was limited to
only the occasional appearance in the Hong Kong tournament. Yet they
wanted to do well at Murrayfield. ''They've got to put in a good effort
to do their country proud,'' Long remarked.
His plan was to call 50 club coaches from throughout Romania to
Bucharest, so that he could explain by word and video what was needed
for seven-a-side rugby. The coaches then went back to their clubs to
produce players for the national team.
''We're making the quantum leap from club 15-a-sides to international
sevens,'' Long explained. ''But our goal is to be in the top 10 at
Murrayfield.'' To do that they have to beat at least four of their five
pool opponents -- Latvia, Japan, Wales, South Africa, and Fiji. A tall
order!
Long has found a squad whom he believes to have the necessary
qualities, with speed and ball skills. ''It is significant that the
average age is 22 or 23,'' he commented. ''These boys will be around for
a long time.''
Measuring how far Romania have come in a short time under Long's
diktat, they picked up a trophy in the Hong Kong tournament last month,
retaining the bowl in the third tier competition.
In earlier ties they were beaten by both Scotland and Tonga, but Long
had a warning for the opposition in that Romania have a stronger squad
than they had in Hong Kong. They have added three players who were
unavailable because of a FIRA championship international against
Portugal.
As a guide for tomorrow and the next two days, Long suggested that
Murrayfield spectators should look out especially for four Romanian
players -- Daniel Neaga at scrum half, Adrian Mitrocaru at centre,
Catalin Sasu, and Bogdan Serban.
Sasu and Serban are speedy wings, though Long was reluctant to say too
much about where they will play in the seven. He wanted to keep a
surprise up a sleeve for Romania's opening tie against Wales.
RAY Megson, Edinburgh Wanderers' international referee, has been given
two potentially crucial ties in the Rugby World Cup Sevens at
Murrayfield on Saturday. He has the Pool A match between Fiji and Wales
as well as the Group B game in which New Zealand are to meet France.
Tomorrow the Scot will do two of Latvia's three Pool A games -- those
against Romania and South Africa -- as well as the Group B match between
France and Ireland.
Derek Bevan, the 1991 World Cup referee from Wales, will have charge
of two of Scotland's pool matches. He will referee the game against
Taiwan, the last of tomorrow's 30 games, and he will do the tie against
Australia on Saturday.
New Zealand's Colin Hawke has Scotland's opening match against Tonga
on Friday afternoon. Scots, however, do not have favourable memories of
him as he was severely criticised by David Sole after the second Test
against Australia last year.
An Irishman and a Japan referee have been allocated Scotland's two
other matches -- Owen Doyle for the game against Argentina, and Naoki
Saito for the tie against Italy.
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