BEHIND THE IRON
Bradley lifts lid on challenges facing Romania and Georgia
THOSE familiar with the Cold War period in the sixties and seventies and glancing through former Ireland international Michael Bradley’s passport would deduce immediately...that he was a spy!
Not true of course but repeated coaching trips to Georgia and, more recently, to Romania have made him one of the foremost experts in rugby in eastern Europe.
The Oaks and the Lelos are two specific, albeit contrasting, cases, with initially the Romanians posting such brilliant results in the 1980’s that they were tipped to join the Five Nations.
These days it is Georgia who have won seven consecutive Six Nations ‘B’ titles and there are gathering claims for their representation.
As it stands, the 40-times capped Ireland scrum-half Bradley, who was interim Ireland coach for a spell in 2008, can’t wait for the RWC 2023 to play out.
Yes, he will be watching Ireland, bursting with pride and hoping they can go all the way.
Fearful
But he is fearful for the first of his two ‘other’ sides, Romania — where he coached and advised some five years back and who open their campaign against Andy Farrell’s men in Bordeaux this afternoon.
Albeit, he is far more hopeful about Georgia’s prospects — for whom he has been a regular advisor and on-site Defence Coach at RWC 2015 — as they set off in Group C against Australia in Paris later in the evening.
Romania’s rise had actually come as a favoured sport under the now-disgraced Ceaucescu regime, mimicking the Soviet Union’s soccer model as preferred jobs in the army and the police were given to top rugby players, in effect, making them professionals.
The fall of Ceaucescu regime and his Christmas Day 1989 execution brought bloody retribution for those ‘favoured’ by its regime and the sport is still only making baby steps in recovery — Bradley doesn’t think, for instance, they can hold Ireland to under 60 points.
“This is the thing, Romania in modern history have struggled and professional team-wise, the numbers have dwindled,” he says. “At one stage they had 10 pro teams around the country and it actually went down a couple of years ago to five and it’s kind of gone back up to maybe the six or seven now but they are struggling.
“They have a number of players in France but there is just one with a Top 14 club and two in the layer below, PROD2 — they used to have an awful lot more. When I was in Italy recently they played more or less their World Cup side against the third Italian side, an emerging Italy team, and were beaten 50-26, while they were thrashed 57-7 by the full Italy side in November.
Level
“Their level is the equivalent of our AIL Division One (e.g. Lansdowne, Cork Con, Ballinahinch) to be fair.”
Romania were also dealt a body blow when coach Andy Robinson unexpectedly quit his post last December, bringing in Eugen Apjok as his replacement.
“He is the Head Coach up in Baia Mare and he’s a good man actually. He would have been coach of one of the two most successful teams in recent history up there, he’s one of their own and is bound to instil some pride.
“Baia Mare, who are up north, they would have always been quite a strong, almost old fashioned forwardoriented team (they are nicknamed ‘The Bisons’!) so he knows the game.”
Today’s starting XV in Bordeaux will have nine players from the Romanian domestic league and six based in France.
There are a notable number of players from the domestic league who have qualified on the World Rugby eligibility rules, such as former Leinster centre Joe Tomane’s brother Jason, based at Baia Mare and also a centre.
“They have private owners of the clubs, so they want to win the league and it’s coming from the communist kind of era where there’s actually personal kudos and financial reward for winning the league, so you’ve got a guy in a region who wants to see his team do well.
Owners
“What happens when you have owners like that is they want to bring in what they see as better players. (inset)
“The rule in Romania when I was there was that you were allowed seven overseas players and that’s why they had so many overseas players coming in, the owners wanted to win their own league and were less concerned with the international team and bringing youngsters through.
“The Romanian rugby union started to curb that a few years back, maybe at the start of this World Cup cycle and it will be for the better.”
Romania’s reputation for having a fierce front-row has also receded.
“I remember as recently as the 2011 World Cup when they should have beaten Scotland in their opening game in Invercargill, they really got into the Scots up front but end up losing 24-34.
“But it has moved on, Romania, Georgia, countries like that would have natural athletes that can play in the front-row because, I suppose, it’s just what the country produces.
“But Georgia have gone ahead these days, they have a much better rugby programme which saw them, to their credit, able to corral it and channel it and that sort of stuff.
“Romania hasn’t and they are a bit behind Georgia, maybe at this stage they could be 10 years behind at the moment.”
Pack
Georgia are looking good at the moment in part because they are no longer simply a good pack but thanks to Bradley — who is credited with ‘discovering’ Top 14 star scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze — and Tereneure College — who are similarly credited with ‘making’ out-half Teto Abzhandadze.
However, there is far more to