For most, the overthrowing of Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in 1989 brought an end to years of misery.

Yet for one small section of the population, it marked the beginning of the end.

After years of patronage from the Ceausescu family, rugby's popularity faded away until the game became nothing more than a shadow of its former self.

The truly low point came in 2001 when they lost the second-tier European competition, the European Nations Cup, to Georgia and were humiliated by a Charlie Hodgson-inspired England, losing 134-0 at Twickenham.

But like a phoenix the Oaks have started to rise again.

That record defeat in London led to the appointment of Frenchman Bernard Charryere as national coach.

The 52-year-old has added that all-important ingredient often associated with the country of his birth - flair.

And it has worked. Within four months of Charryere's appointment Romania regained the 2002 European Nations Cup, something they repeated again this year.

Improvements at domestic level have helped Romania to recover from the dark days and now, ranked in the world's top 20 and after coming second behind Italy in qualification, Romania are all set for their fifth World Cup appearance.

They will travel to Australia looking to go one better than the solitary pool win which they have managed at every event bar the 1995 competition in South Africa.

That may be a tall order for Charryere's side as for the third consecutive time they have been pooled with Australia and will also face the might of Argentina and Ireland.

Their match against Namibia at Launceston at the end of October looks their strongest bet for a win.

Squad: Iulian Andrei, Petru Balan, Gabriel Brezoianu, George Chiriac, Danut Dumbrava, Silviu Florea, Vasile Ghioc, Romeo Gontineac, Valentin Maftei, Razvan Mavrodin, Costica Mersoiu, Marius Nicolai, Marius Pantelimon, Cristian Petre, Augustin Petrichei, Cristian Podea, Cezar Popescu, Lucian Sarbu, Cristian Sauan, Marcel Socaciu, Sorin Socol, Ioan Teodorescu, Petrisor Toderasc, Ionut Tofan, Ovidiu Tonita, Bogdan Tudor, Marian Tudori, Dan Tudosa, Mihai Vioreanu, Bogdan Voicu.