Rust shows but Gatland's men finish strongly

Hardly out of the lions' den but nonetheless a useful win against resilient opposition on a balmy Saturday afternoon in Bucharest. The Irish thrust and panache as exhibited in the winter against France has been blunted by those grey months of idleness and it was only in the final quarter of this Test the visitors fully opened their shoulders.

Having soaked up an hour of punishment, Romania finally bowed to the inevitable without ever fully acquiescing. The youthful home team were in no mood to lay a carpet out for an Irish score rush. Doggedly, they smothered the visiting attack routes for over half the game before a combination of exhaustion and radically improved Irish handling facilitated a final result which was a lot glossier than the 9-3 posting that separated the sides at half-time.

Throughout that first half, Ireland's attempts to build repeatedly faltered on self-imposed destruction, with casual passing and appalling handling eliminating opportunities to develop second and third phase attacks. When the cogs finally turned in sequence, the Irish strung together some pretty moves, mixing well between backs and forwards and pressing the Romanian cover until the gaps became irresistible.

Anthony Foley's crash over after 56 minutes, originating from a piercing run from the heel of an Irish scrum by Peter Stringer, started the mini-deluge. Ten minutes later, Kevin Maggs grabbed a flat pass and scampered free under the posts and then Stringer and Foley combined before captain Mick Galwey rumbled over. Geordan Murphy created the final try, cutting through a blur of yellow shirts and floating a pop-pass for substitute Johnny Bell to finish. Paul Burke ended the scoring with a conversion.

Satisfied though the Irish were with the result, there was a degree of introspection about the overall show.

"It took us one hour to be where we wanted to be after 20 minutes," stressed Eddie O'Sullivan. "Okay, in the last 20 minutes the more it went on, the more we looked likely to score. But it took us a long time to get to that point, which is what I would be most critical about."

The Romanians had asked some early questions. Equipped with a solid midfield, they were able to absorb the disappointingly one-paced Irish threequarters line. Murphy did burst free for a glorious dash after two minutes that almost led to a try after the play switched wings to Tyrone Howe in a sequence that suggested Ireland were going to run their hosts ragged. Instead, the home side made most of the brighter moments early on.

Ionut Tofan flung the ball about composedly and Tonito and Corodeanu bulldozed their way through the Irish cover to make some ground early on. The Romnanians might have had two tries. Murphy made a fine covering tackle on Maftei three minutes before half-time and then, in the opening seconds of the restart, Frankie Sheehan floated a slack pass straight to Maftei and must have blessed himself when the French-based player fumbled the gift.

But still only two penalties down, the home side were enjoying themselves and began throwing the ball around with a bit of swagger. The turning point, arguably, came in the 54th minute when Howe landed a ferocious tackle that stopped Gabriel Brezoianu and the Romanian attack stone dead. Ireland gained possession and two minutes later, Foley banged through. The pass was breached.

The exercise had its uses. Players like Guy Easterby and Kieron Dawson came back and presented themselves as viable options. Murphy had an accomplished afternoon, one spilled pass aside, and his inventive, attacking nature promises much for the future. Eric Miller was tremendously diligent around the field and Foley, as usual, made his presence felt. Delighted though Easterby was to be figuring in the Irish plans so soon after returning from serious injury, his joy was eclipsed by hooker Shane Byrne, who was finally awarded the elusive first senior cap. "Beaming. Absolutely beaming," was how he described his reaction. "When I was told to get warmed up, I just screamed, `deadly'. Playing in it didn't hold any fears for me, it is just a weight of the shoulders to get it," he said.

It was a shame, for both the appreciative crowd of 2,000 and the player himself, Denis Hickie did not see more of the leather. "Well, it was tough in many ways," acknowledged Foley afterwards. "I hadn't played seriously in over a month, same with a few of the others and it took us a while to get into it and the number of errors was very frustrating. Still, we kept a cool head."

In three weeks, the Irish squad meets up again for a fortnight's June training camp in Poland. Six Nations tournaments ain't what they used to be.

Ireland: G Murphy; D Hickie, M Mullins, K Maggs, T Howe; D Humphreys, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheehan, J Hayes; M Galwey, G Longwell, E Miller, K Dawson, A Foley. Replacements: S Easterby for P Stringer (57 mins), J Fitzpatrick for P Clohessy (65 mins), S Byrne for F Sheehan (65 mins), P Burke for D Humphreys (71 mins), J Bell for M Mullins (71 mins), D Wallace for A Foley (77 mins), M O'Driscoll for M Galwey (77 mins)

Romania: G Brezioanu; I Teoderescu, V Maftei, O Nicolae, V Ghioc; I Tofan, L Sirbu; M Socaciu, P Balan, S Florea; C Nedelcu, O Tonita, M Bejan, C Mersoiu, F Corodeanu. Replacements: M Ciolacu for V Maftei (37 mins, blood), V Maftei for M Ciolacu (40 mins), S Guranescu for V Maftei (50 mins inj), S Soare for F Corodeanu (50 mins), S Demci for M Bejan (62 mins), M Dragomir for V Nedelcu (72 mins), M Ciolacu for I Tofan (77 mins), D Tudosa for M Socaciu (77 mins) Sin-binned: Romania - V Ghioc (57 mins)

Referee: I Ramage (Scotland)