Gatland is hoping for improvement

Compulsory attendance at Wednesday night's Romania-Georgia game didn't exactly rank with an Irish squad night out at the movies.

As a means of galvanising the attendant Irish players into thinking that Romania would present a far tougher test, then it probably would have been better if they hadn't seen it.

The Romanians were surprisingly unimpressive and accordingly left Irish coach Warren Gatland unimpressed. "I don't think they were the best side in the world and we've just got to go out and play well, and improve our performance from last week. So we're putting pressure on ourselves to improve our performance as well.

"I know they were missing a few forwards who are playing in France so that may have affected their preparations. They were a bit more inventive than the Georgians in the backline and did a few more things."

Donal Lenihan concurred, and while picking out the Romanian scrum-half Petre Mitu (to nodded approval from Gatland) admitted "we expected a little bit more from them."

The Irish management had set individual goals while the team would set their own collective targets. "There's a bit of anxiousness in the group. There's three changes in the side for Saturday and we've noticed since South Africa that competition within the squad is getting stronger with new faces like Scally and Dempsey and one or two others coming in.

"But the overall strength in depth seems to be improving which is great. Maybe in the past some players were complacent in that they knew players weren't putting pressure on them in that position.

We'd like to see competition for every place in the side and we're slowly getting close to that. I think if we can achieve that over the next two games we'll have achieved a lot."

Co-incidentally and totally accidentally, Paddy Johns' involvement in yesterday morning's session at Dr Hickey Park was curtailed when he was a little dazed following a collision with Jeremy Davidson. But the blow wasn't of any concern to the team doctor or management, and won't prevent him taking part in today's closed run-out at Lansdowne Road.

The Romanian coach Mircea Paraschiv, capped 63 times at scrum-half for his country, admitted it was not a vintage Romanian performance but claimed there were other extenuating factors, aside from the interpretations of South African referee Jonathan Kaplan.

"Georgia played a game like Ireland's, many obstructions, many times they killed the ball. Their (Georgia's) game is very poor because they have many, many, many balls, I think 85 per cent of the time they have the ball, but no vision or ideas."

Although their primary objective has now been completed in qualifying for a fourth successive World Cup finals (thereby rendering tomorrow's encounter academic) Paraschiv maintained it would be "an honour for Romanian rugby to play one of the good teams in Europe, with a big tradition and also a good rugby side.

"We think of this game very seriously, because, okay we have qualification now, but we don't want to lose like Georgia, by 70 points.

"I think Ireland is very strong in the scrum and very strong in the area around the scrum, especially in the second phase and third phase, and also they change their strategy in that their backs don't play like the Georgians."

Injuries from the bruising if poor encounter with Georgia forced three changes in personnel and one positional in the side to face Ireland, but Paraschiv said he picked "our strongest side" from those available.

Radu Fugigi, a six-times capped 25-year-old right-winger, replaces Cristan Hildan, while the twice-capped 30-year-old tight-head Florin Marioara replaces the experienced Constantin Stan, and Vasile Doja comes into the second-row, with Adrian Girbu moving to open side.

Romania (v Ireland): M Vioreanu; R Fugigi, G Brezoianu, R Gontineac, G Solomie; R Vusec, P Mitu; D Niculae, R Mavrodin, F Marioara, M Dragomir, V Doja, A Manta, C Draguceanu (capt), A Girbu. Replacements: M Ciolacu, C Lupu, M Iacob, E Septar, O Slusariuc, S Mocanu, P Balan.

England (v Italy, Huddersfield, tomorrow): M Perry (Bath), A Healey (Leicester), J Guscott (Bath), W Greenwood (Leicester), D Luger (Harlequins), P Grayson (Northampton), M Dawson (Northampton), J Leonard (Harlequins), R Cockerill, D Garforth, M Johnson (capt, all Leicester), G Archer (Newcastle), B Clarke (Richmond), M Corry (Leicester), N Back (Leicester). Replacements: M Catt (Bath), N Beal (Northampton), G Rowntree (Leicester), P Greening (Sale), T Rodber (Northampton), R Hill (Saracens), D Grewcock (Saracens).

Scotland (v South Africa, Murrayfield, tomorrow): D Lee (London Scottish); A Tait (Edinburgh Reivers), J Mayer (Edinburgh Reivers), J Leslie (Glasgow Caledonians), C Murray (Edinburgh Reivers); D Hodge (Edinburgh Reivers), B Redpath (Edinburgh Reivers, capt); T Smith (Glasgow Caledonians), G Bulloch (Glasgow Caledonians), P Burnell (London Scottish), S Murray (Bedford), D Weir (Newcastle), P Walton (Newcastle), E Peters (Bath), B Pountney (Northampton). Replacements: K Logan (Wasps), G Townsend (Brive), G Armstrong (Newcastle), M Leslie (Edinburgh Reivers), S Grimes (Glasgow Caledonians), D Hilton (Bath), S Brotherstone (Edinburgh Reivers).