Even the news that stand-in captain Stelian Burcea would be sidelined for six months couldn’t take the gloss off what has otherwise been a wholly positive period for Romanian rugby.

While reflecting on a first win over the USA in 17 years and follow-up victories over Canada and Uruguay in November was enough to bring a smile to the face of Romania’s hugely experienced head coach Lynn Howells, he derives more satisfaction from the way in which a host of his younger players took their chance to shine in the series.

“I played 50 players from the start of 2016, and I got some stick when we lost to Georgia (in the European Nations Cup), but trying out new players was an important part in our development," he explained.

“Now that I have seen most of the players, I think we’re in a better position in terms of our strength in depth, which is just as well because our captain from the November internationals, Stelian Burcea, is out for six months due to a knee ligament injury.”

YOUNG STARS

Five players received their first caps over the course of the three games in Bucharest. When asked to highlight some of his emerging stars, Howells chose two backs and two forwards.

“Florin Popa, a 19-year-old, came through very well. He gained a lot of experience playing at centre alongside people like Florin Vlaicu and Jack Umaga," said Howells.

“Alexandru Tigna, the scrum-half, learnt a lot too, and one or two young forwards got game time because I didn’t fetch the France-based players back, I went with local players.

“Ionut Muresan is a good player in the second row and Cristian Chirica did very well and he could well be the openside that we’ve been looking for. Again, both are only 19.”

COMPETITION FOR PLACES

With the experience of players like regular captain Mihai Macovei and Andrei Ursache set to come back into the equation, competition for places is starting to hot up ahead of Romania’s opening Rugby Europe Championship game against Germany on 11 February.

“Going back to 2012, when I first started here, we had no strength in depth. We had a starting XV and after that, you were struggling. But having seen and worked with these players, they have the potential to do well; the big thing now is to give them the games," Howells said.

Traditionally known for their forward grunt and not much else, Romania have started to show a different side to their game.

The input of naturalised players from the southern hemisphere such as Umaga and Jody Rose has clearly been a factor in the Oaks playing a more rounded game.

“I was pleased with the results over November but also the way we played,” Howells said.

“After the World Cup, I made the decision that we wouldn’t carry on playing one-dimensional rugby, and I think the players started to realise through November that they can play a bit. The overseas players have helped that transformation and now the Romanian boys want to play that way too.”

QUALIFICATION HOPES

Howells hopes Romania can keep their winning run going indefinitely. A good set of results in the first year of the rebranded Rugby Europe Championship would lay the foundation for them to secure qualification for Rugby World Cup 2019.

Results over the next two years of the Championship will count towards qualification, with Romania favourites to occupy the Europe 1 berth as Georgia, the defending champions, have already qualified for Japan 2019 through their third-place pool finish at RWC 2015.

"I’d rather have played Georgia at the beginning of the tournament because the result doesn’t count towards qualification and it gives you a chance to start getting a bit of momentum, but we’ve got them last, which always seems to happen, and it is usually the Championship decider," he said.

“First and foremost, though, we have to win in Germany.”