Wales’ record losing run of 11 matches was finally brought to a halt at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground as the Romanian’s were beaten by six tries to one.
Four days after the humiliation of seeing his top team beaten out of sight by England’s second string at the Millennium Stadium, Wales coach Steve Hansen saw a young Welsh side, containing six of last season’s Grand Slam winning Under 21 team, finally restore some pride.
Welsh fans had been forced to wait 10 months and 12 matches for a win, the last triumph coming against Canada way back in November last year.
Recalled wing Shane Williams ran in two tries and had the honour of scoring the first and last of the night. He popped over after only three minutes for the his first, to help set-up a 30-8 interval lead for the home side, and then capped a solid performance with his second in the seventh minute of injury time.
Full back Gavin Henson helped himself to 24 points on the night with a perfect 10 out of 10 goalkicking display. Other tries came from No 8 Alix Popham new scrum half Michael Phillips. After the break, Wales ran in three more tries with Nathan Brew following in Phillips’ footsteps with a debut try before back row man Gavin Thomas and Williams rounded off proceedings.
Romania, who were heavily beaten in France last week, were temporarily reduced to 13 men in the second half when prop Petru Balan, who crashed over for their seventh minute try, was sent to the sin bin six minutes after the break and then hooker Marius Tincu followed seven minutes later for a stamping incident.
Full back Danut Dumbrava provided the visitors with their only other points with a first half penalty.
WALES: G Henson (Neath/Swansea Ospreys); N Brew (Gwent Dragons), M Watkins (Llanelli Scarlets), A Marinos (Gwent Dragons), S Williams (Neath/Swansea Ospreys); N Robinson (Cardiff Blues), M Phillips (Llanelli Scarlets); P James (Neath/Swansea Ospreys), M Davies (Celtic Warriors, captain), B Evans (Cardiff Blues), I Gough (Gwent Dragons), B Cockbain (Celtic Warriors), J Thomas (Neath/Swansea Ospreys), G Thomas (Neath/Swansea Ospreys), A Popham (Leeds Tykes).
Replacements: J Bater (Neath/Swansea Ospreys ) for Popham 66; J Bryant (Celtic Warriors) for Marinos 75; C Anthony (Gwent Dragons) for Evans 78; P Young (Gwent Dragons) for Davies 78; D Jones (Celtic Warriors) for Gough 60; A Williams (Neath/Swansea Ospreys) for Phillips 53; G Wyatt (Celtic Warriors) for Watkins 74.
ROMANIA: D Dumbrava (Steaua Bucharest); C Sauan (Rovigo), V Mattei (Aurillac), R Gontineac (Aurillac, captain), G Brezoianu (Dax); I Tofan (Metro Racing), L Sirbu (Metro Racing); P Balan (Biarritz), M Tincu (Pau), M Socaciu (Rovigo), S Socol (Agen), C Petre (Metro Racing), G Chiriac (Farul Constanta), C Merasoiu (Steaua Bucharest), O Tonita (Biarritz).
Replacements: D Tudosa (Metro Racing) for Chiriac 52-57, for Balan 73; P Toderasc (Farul Constanta) for Socaciu 47; C Popescu (Steaua Bucharest) Chiriac 58; A Perichei (Perpignan) for Socol 41; I Teodoruscu (Universitatea) for Tofan 41.
Referee: A Turner (South Africa).
