Just under 10,000 fans gathered at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, to watch the four-tries-to-nil victory, but will have gone home disappointed by the home side’s efforts. Veteran fly-half Neil Jenkins helped matters with twenty points in a fine display of goal-kicking. The match started slowly, with Wales kicking away valuable possession and failing to secure the ball at the breakdown.
Not surprisingly, it was the world-record points-holder Jenkins who opened the scoring with a penalty goal in the eighth minute. Romania had the chance to hit back, but fly-half Ionut Tofan was narrowly wide with consecutive penalty-goal attempts. Jenkins added a goal in the 25th minute as the home side’s unconvincing start to the BT Autumn International Series continued.
Two further goals gave the Red Dragons a 12-0 lead at halftime, but if Tofan had remembered his kicking boots, it would have been 12-9 and the boos starting to come from the Racecourse crowd would have been considerably louder. Tofan finally kicked accurately in the opening minutes of the second half to get his side on the scoreboard, but Wales hit straight back through new boy Sonny Parker. The Pontypridd centre cut through the Romanian backline before being ankle-tapped with the line begging. No.8 Scott Quinnell shrugged his way through two tackles to score near the posts.
Jenkins’s conversion gave Wales a sixteen point lead, and they went further ahead in the 64th minute when winger Gareth Thomas made a good break down the left hand side before feeding Llanelli winger Mark Jones, who scored in the corner. The pressure eventually told on the brave Romanians, who let in Gareth Thomas in the 78th minute before conceding a last minute penalty-try to give Wales a 40-3 victory.
