Romania 27 United States 25

Despite a last-minute fightback by the United States, Romania held on long enough to record their first ever World Cup victory at Lansdowne Road in the Pool E clash.

In the early stages of the match it had been the USA who looked the stronger side with their skipper Dan Lyle, one of the few professional players in the Eagles ranks, crashing over for a try after a protracted period of American pressure.

But not long after his try, the influential flanker left the field with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Shaun Paga.  With their captain sidelined, the USA lost some of their composure that allowed the Romanians to edge their way back into the match.

The Eagles took the lead with a penalty from scrum-half Kevin Dalzell after just 12 minutes.  But that lead was to be short-lived as veteran centre Gheorghe Solomie broke through for a try that went unconverted.

Immediately after the break, the USA added a new urgency to their player, powering to another try through wing Brian Hightower after some brilliant inter-handling between the backs and forwards.

But this score seemed to galvanise the Romanians who began playing an excellent tactical game, pinning the USA back into their own half with a combination of forward power and the deft kicking of No.9 Petre Mitu.

Tries from skipper Tudor Constantin and Adrian Petrache maintained Romania's lead and the score as poised at 27-20 in the final frantic few minutes.

The USA mounted a furious last resort attack which resulted in fullback Kurt Shuman going over in the left-hand corner but Kevin Dalzell was unable to convert the try and Romania held on until the final whistle.

The Teams:

Romania:  1 Razvan Mavrodin, 2 Petre Balan, 3 Constantin Stan, 4 Tiberiu Brinza, 5 Tudor Constantin, 6 Alin Petrache, 7 Erdinci Septar, 8 Catalin Draguceanu, 9 Petre Mitu, 10 Roland Vusec, 11 Cristian Sauan, 12 Gabriel Brezoianu, 13 Romeo Gontineac, 14 Gheorghe Solomie, 15 Mihai Vioreanu
Reserves:  Daniel Chiriac, Florin Corodeanu, Nicolae Dragos Dima
Unused:  Marius Iacob, Radu Fugigi, Laurentiu Rotaru, Ionut Tofan

United States:  1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Dan Lyle (c), 7 Tasi Mo'unga, 8 Rob Lumkong, 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 David Niu, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Mark Scharrenberg, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves:  Joe Clayton, Dave Hodges, Kirk Khasigian, Shaun Paga, Tomasi Takau, Richard Tardits
Unused:  UST8

Attendance:  3000
Referee:  Fleming j

Points Scorers

Romania
Tries:  Constantin T. 1, Petrache A.A. 1, Solomie G.L. 2
Conv:  Mitu P. 2
Pen K.:  Mitu P. 1

United States
Tries:  Hightower B. 1, Lyle D.J. 1, Shuman K.D. 1
Conv:  Dalzell K. 2
Pen K.:  Dalzell K. 2