Tonita connects with his new ‘Taswegian’ friends

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful What’s happening here?

It’s October 30, 2003 at York Park, Launceston on the island of Tasmania, and Romania are playing Namibia in their final pool game of RWC2003. Romania’s flanker Ovidiu Tonita, comfortably the best player on the park, has just made the Oaks fifth and final try and on a night of much goodwill and support for both teams, is setting off to high five as many new fans as he can by way of celebration.

What’s the story behind the picture?

Rugby World Cup 2003 was bloody hard going for both Namibia and Romania who found themselves in the “group of death” with hosts Australia, Ireland and Argentina. The three big boys were clearly going to slug it out and the points difference was almost certainly going to come into play. So there was no mercy against the minnows.

By the time they arrived in Tasmania the two sides between them had conceded 458 points without the remotest sniff of a win. That total included Namibia’s world record 142-0 defeat against the Australians.

It would have been easy to let their heads drop and at first glance

the organisers’ decision to ship them off to Tasmania where rugby was virtually unknown and presumably there would be limited interest in a dead rubber appeared an odd one smacking of Tier 2 nations again being treated like second class citizens. How wrong we were.

What happened next?

An unexpectedly joyous and rather wonderful rugby night in which the teams and crowd enjoyed themselves likewise before all concerned adjourned to the nearby bars to toast each other’s health.

From memory what happened is that Tasmania, always wary of being left out of things in Australia where they are something of the

Cinderella state, went to town and decided to make a festival of their one stab at the World Cup.

Tasmania folk – Taswegians to one and all – descended on Launceston from all over their wild beautiful island and the local media came up with the clever ruse that all those who lived in houses with an odd number support Romania and those with an even Namibia, or the Nambians as they were dubbed. Even the scoreboard had to be corrected from Nambia to Namibia mid match. For those whose abode had a name not a number their allegiance was decided on their car number. Failing that it was your birthday.

It was time for Tasmania to put its best foot forward, pronouncing itself as the ABC capital of the world in all their tourism literature. A was for apples – it’s one of the world’s most productive orchards – B for beer and C for crumpet with Taswegian Errol Flynn, er, learning all his seductive techniques growing

up on island. Remarkably one tourist attraction was the house where he allegedly lost his virginity. Tasmania is nothing if not eccentric.

Anyway, come match night and there was an unexpectedly partisan atmosphere as well as good party vibe at York Park and the exhausted and sore warriors from both countries responded by producing their best. Romania were the stronger and better side and Tonita a class apart.

It’s easy to forget what a good player Tonita was, a big back rower who was more Pacific islander in style and explosive power than east European. In another, more accomplished national team, he would have been a huge star but those in the know fully appreciated his strength on the ball and big hits. Tonita was a Top 14 winner with Perpignan and played in five World Cups for Romania, an achievement he shares with Brian Lima (Samoa) and Sergio Parisse (Italy).

At the end of the game Namibia’s Dr Rudi van Vuuren – nursing groin and hamstring injuries – hobbled on for seven minutes thus becoming the only sportsman to appear in both the rugby and cricket World Cups. Not only that, he did it in the same year.

Why is the picture iconic

This is the Rugby World Cup that you don’t very often see. A forgotten match in a very odd venue but for the two teams involved this is their World Cup final. And for the crowd, in a remote outpost of the huge continental nation that is Australia, a chance to be part of proceedings and to fly their own flag.

And then there is Tonita. The vast majority of his games for Romania were desperately tough affairs against the odds, trying to shore up an overpowered pack with no chance of winning or showing any attacking skills. This was a chance to shine, an occasion to relish.

And the other aspect here is the rear view! We, the rugby-savvy readers of The Rugby Paper, know this is Tonita but to the rest of the sporting world he is anonymous and the message is universal. Having fun, taking off his headgear which offers the cloak of anonymity and connecting directly with an alien crowd. And those fans return the love. The esperanto miracle of sport.

Footnote: So successful was the night that Melbourne AFL team Hawthorn took to regularly staging ‘home’ Aussie Rules games at York Park which has become something of a citadel for them.