LONDON — A youthful French side maintained its winning start to the Rugby World Cup with a 38-11 Pool D victory over Romania at the Olympic Stadium Wednesday, giving coach Philippe Saint-Andre plenty to ponder. After an opening victory against Italy, Saint-Andre made 13 changes for the clash against the Romanians, fielding France's youngest World Cup side for eight years. Despite some edgy periods in the first half, when Romania's tireless work at the breakdown snagged French fluency, it managed five tries in a satisfactory night's work. France's best work came in bursts. Shortly before halftime when Romania was down to 14 men, Sofiane Guitoune and Yannick Nyanga took advantage to score in the same corner. Then, after the interval, winger Guitoune and center Wesley Fofana, who missed the opening game with a thigh injury, opened up clear daylight. France's early flair had been stifled by a pumped-up Romanian side, which was unlucky not to score when center Florin Vlaicu dived over a pile of bodies after some desperate French defending on their five-meter line but could not ground the ball and had to settle for a penalty. France was rattled and Romania should have gone ahead, only for Vlaicu to miss a kickable penalty. Romania paid the price when lock Paulica Ion was sent to the sin bin for illegally stopping a French rolling maul and Guitoune and second row Nyanga went over in quick succession, with Parra converting both. Vlaicu's penalty on the stroke of halftime gave the Romanians something to build on but they were unable to make much headway in the second half. France had to wait until the 66th minute to increase its advantage to comfortable proportions, with Guitoune stretching over for his second try of the night. Two minutes later Fofana evaded two tackles to score another and Parra's replacement Rory Kockott knocked over the conversion. Romania was rewarded for its hard graft with a try for Valentin Ursache, but France provided the final flourish when a side-stepping Gael Fickou waltzed over at the death. France next heads to Milton Keynes to play Canada on Oct. 1 before facing a probable group decider against Ireland. — Reuters
