Rugby
Rugby vs. The World: A New Twist in Romania
The balance and poise of gymnastics against rough and tumble rugby - who will win? The 2015 Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour continued its way through Europe and most recently stopped in Romania for a very special edition of the DHL Rugby vs The World Challenge.
As athletes go, rugby players tend to be quite versatile: they’re strong, quick, and agile – qualities that are useful in a variety of sports. But even the best rugby players in the world would have a tough time performing well in Andreea Raducan’s world.
She’s an Olympic champion gymnast, winning gold for Romania at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and as Irish rugby legend Ronan O’Gara learned, gymnastics isn’t a sport that you can simply pick up in a day.
Just like in the Olympics, Ronan and Andreea were scored by judges for the first challenge on the vault. Andreea’s two attempts involved flips and twists; Ronan’s efforts involved two wobbly landings, giving the points for the first challenges to Andreea.
“It’s not easy to do even a simple skill for someone who never did gymnastics,” Andreea said of Ronan’s brave attempts.
Ronan, clearly impressed by the athleticism involved in some of the moves on the vault, was also amazed with Andreea’s skill level since retiring from the sport:
“Thirteen years later, she still has it.” (Ronan O'Gara)
The next event, the crossbar challenge, was more up Ronan’s alley. It involved both players taking five attempts at kicking a rugby ball toward a soccer goal from 16.5 meters to see who could hit the crossbar the most.
Back in his element, Ronan managed to clang the ball off the bar twice, leveling the score heading into the final challenge.
The tie-breaker involved the national sport of Romania, oina, which is a bit of a blend of baseball and dodgeball. The challenge was to hit an oina ball with the oina bat and see who could launch it the furthest.
Despite being from Romania, Andreea said she had never played oina before. But Ronan wasn’t buying it: “Andreea is at home, so she has the advantage going into it. She knows an awful lot more about the elements than I do.”
GALLERY: Click through the pictures at the top of the page!
Andreea went first and set the mark at five meters. Ronan, needing only to hit the ball further than five meters, swung and missed on the first two of his third attempts. But on his final swing, he connected solidly and launched the ball 22 meters, taking the final challenge and the overall win.
Afterward, Andreea admitted there was one thing even harder than the two sports she was trying for the very first time: “the real challenge for me was to understand Ronan’s Irish accent,” drawing a laugh from her opponent.
The Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour continues in April with a trip across the Atlantic to Canada, where Rugby will take on the Canadian pastime of ice hockey in the next DHL Rugby vs. The World Challenge.
Follow us on Twitter @DHL_Rugby (#anythingispossible) or Facebook, and catch up on all the Rugby vs. The World action on YouTube!
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