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From Transylvania to the Wallabies: The wild journey of rugby’s ‘Romanian Rumbler’

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David Feliaui always had a dream to play for Australia. He just had to go on a Mormon mission and play in Dracula’s backyard first.

Footballers rely on each other for a network of inside information. When considering a new club, they will commonly quiz a contact for mail on the coach, the culture of the club, or the best place to find a coffee and rent a house.

Sorry, it pays to be more specific here: the club in question was based in Baia Mare, a city in the region of Transylvania, and the striking part of the world where Irish author Bram Stoker set his novel Dracula. “Nah man, I didn’t think I’d be in this environment ,” Feliuai says. “It was always a dream growing up.“I started going through my early 20s and started thinking it was out of reach, to be honest. I always look back on the journey, and it takes a bit to soak in and just think about how far I’ve come.”

“I think I was like 19, and I’d just come back from Fiji and not really conditioned or ready to do all that stuff,” Feliuai says. “I gave it a crack. A few NRL boys turned up there.” The 15-team Liga Nationala de Rugby is a strong standard. It has run since 1913 and Romania has qualified for nine of the 11 Rugby World Cups. Prior to the fall of communism in eastern Europe, Romania recorded wins over France, Italy and Scotland.Tim Clayton

 

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