Australia 90 Romania 8

Romania were thrashed 90-8 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, the biggest win of the 2003 Rugby World Cup so far.

It took the Wallabies 18 seconds to win the game..

That's how long it took them to score the first of their 13 tries in the match as their backs proved to fast and too strong for the battered Romanians.  From the kick-off, lock Nathan Sharpe palmed the ball back to hooker Brendan Cannon, who drove ahead.  Back the ball came to Elton Flatley who stepped and scored.  Eighteen seconds is all that took.

By half-time the Wallabies led 38-8 but it was during the last 22 minutes that they really cut loose, scoring 52 points.

After that first try the Romanians attacked neatly and forced a line-out well inside the Wallaby 22.  But the throw was judged skew and a free-kick was awarded against them when Bill Young bent downwards and the Wallabies were back on the attack for Flatley to goal a penalty.

Next Flatley stepped and bashed through a gap to send Mat Rogers skating over.  After 13 minutes Australia led 17-0.

The Oaks -- wonderful to relate -- scored next.  A Wallaby throw at a defensive line-out went astray.  Big George Chiriac picked up and drove at the Wallaby line.  Another bash and then the pack drove Petriscor Toderasc over for a try in a good position.

Winning the line-out was not altogether a surprise as the Wallabies conceded many turnovers and committed several handling errors in this match of many points.

By half-time Burke had scored two tries.  His second came as he surged through an opening and then went on a long run.  For a while he wandered in search of support.  Finding none he did it on his own.  That brought the end of his match as he was substituted at half-time for Stirling Mortlock to replace his punch at outside centre.

There was a strange replacement at the break as young Matt Giteau came on for George Gregan, who enjoyed an afternoon as captain become spectator.  There was an even stranger one later in the match when wing Lote Tuqiri came on in the place of Phil Waugh and played flank -- and scored a try.  Both sides used all their replacements as the match ceased to be a contest.

Romania started the second half well as captain Romeo Gontineac, playing his 50th Test, created a break from another strong tackle.  Sorin Socol thought he had scored and would probably been disappointed when the Television Match Official was not brought into play.  Instead, Romania were awarded a penalty and attacked again but then lost the ball in a knock-on.  This was the end of their serious attempts to score.

An ankle-tap stopped Wendell Sailor from scoring, but a penalty ensued which a tap and stretch by Stephen Larkham brought a try, heralding a try-scoring spree.

Mortlock broke and ran a long way, Waugh sent Joe Roff on a long trot, Larkham surged over for a second after an execrable clearance attempt by the Oaks, Rogers scooted for a hat-trick from some 70 metres out, which he found tiring, Giteau sped away on a long swerving run, Tuqiri stretched over form a close-in bash and, finally, George Smith scored when the Wallabies shoved the broken Romanians off their ball at a scrum.

Man of the Match:  Lucian Sirbu, Romeo Gontineac, Gabriel Brezoianu and Ovidiu Tonita were brave for Romania, but they were simply no match for the bigger, faster Wallaby backs with their luxurious possession and found it hard to make the early tackle that initiated the long-range try.  The most obvious candidates for Australia were Mat Rogers, Elton Flatley, Stephen Larkham, George Smith and Nathan Sharpe.  Our vote goes to Flatley for those early breaks which broke the Romanians and for his smooth goal-kicking.

Moment of the Match:  There were many, many moments to saviour -- so many that they became cloying.  Probably the best Australian moment was the sheer joy of Matt Giteau as he picked up and went gleefully off to score.

Villain of the Match:  Valentin Maftei was sent to the sin bin for a critical infringement.  It was born of desperation not malice.  He thus does not qualify as a villain.  The only other incidents of note were Wendell Sailor's hefty tackle and Mat Rogers's emotional outburst in a match where players did their best to play the game as the laws require.

The Teams:

Australia:  1 Alastair Baxter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 3 Bill Young, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 5 Daniel Vickerman, 6 George Smith, 7 Phil Waugh, 8 David Lyons, 9 George Gregan (c), 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Joe Roff, 12 Matthew Burke, 13 Elton Flatley, 14 Wendell Sailor, 15 Mat Rogers
Reserves:  Matt Cockbain, Matt Giteau, Stirling Mortlock, Jeremy Paul, Ben Darwin, Justin Harrison, Lote Tuqiri

Romania:  1 Silviu Florea, 2 Razvan Mavrodin, 3 Petrisor Toderasc, 4 Sorin Socol, 5 Cristian Petre, 6 Marius Nicolae, 7 Ovidiu Tonita, 8 George Chiriac, 9 Lucian Sirbu, 10 Ionut Tofan, 11 Gabriel Brezoianu, 12 Romeo Gontineac (c), 13 Valentin Maftei, 14 Cristian Sauan, 15 Dan Dumbrava
Reserves:  Bogdan Tudor, Cristian Podea, Cezar Popescu, Marcel Socaciu, Ioan Teodorescu, Marian Tudori, Mihai Vioreanu

Attendance:  48778
Referee:  Deluca p.

Points Scorers:

Australia
Tries:  Rogers M.S. 3, Burke M.C. 2, Flatley E.J. 1, Roff J.W.C. 1, Larkham S.J. 2, Smith G.B. 1, Giteau M. 1, Mortlock S.A. 1, Tuqiri L. 1
Conv:  Flatley E.J. 11
Pen K.:  Flatley E.J. 1

Romania
Tries:  Toderasc P. 1
Pen K.:  Tofan I.R. 1