Bid to keep Romania alive and kicking

operations director Terry Burwell visited the country to co-ordinate warm-up matches ahead of Romania's Twickenham Test.

'It quickly became clear that an element of support was needed,' said Burwell. 'It is not a financial issue but a people issue - they need expertise. 'We will be looking to get development officers into the field from March onwards. It might also be possible to get people from Romania to attend our coaching courses here.' The International Rugby Board is putting together a five-year support package for Romania and the RFU will co-ordinate its own efforts accordingly. To underpin long-term aid, Twickenham officials proposed at a recent IRB conference in Versailles that 'foundation' unions should help the developing unions, with the intention of 'kick-starting a second tier to challenge the major nations'.

Having seen the scale of the crisis first-hand, Robinson was delighted English rugby was taking a leading role and agreed it was in the best interests of the world game to intervene.

'If we are interested in making rugby a global game then some support must come in,' he said. 'Otherwise, we would eventually be left with a six to eight-team World Cup.'