At 53 years of age, Frenchman Bernard Charreyre became the new head rugby coach of Romania. The year was 2001, and in just two years his strong personality and coaching knowledge has kicked an ailing Romanian rugby machine into gear.
Arriving in Romania through the request of an old friend Octavian Morariu - the new President of the Romanian Rugby Federation - Charreyre set about using his past coaching and playing experience in Paris at club side ASPTT to reshape the game in the eastern European country.
Past Experience
Charreyre’s coaching qualifications are littered with past World Championship successes.
In 1996 in South Africa he took France to victory in the World University Championships and again in 2000 he brought another French side World Championship glory, this time with the Under 19s.
As a player Charreyre began his career winning the French Junior Title with Perpinynan in 1969. He followed that with 14 years at ASPTT Paris, the club that he would later begin his coaching career with.
Third Division
Rugby in Romania has a long history, evidenced by the fact that they are the first country to have ever been awarded an Olympic medal in the sport (Receiving the Bronze in Paris in 1924) however when Bernard Charreyre arrived in Romania, the sport was at a low ebb.
The Oaks had just experienced a 134 to 0 loss to England in Twickenham and was a world away from its glory days in the 60’s when it went four years without losing to France and was beating teams like Scotland and Wales.
The little Napoleon
"My goal is to create a real club with Romania to help the team be competitive again," said Charreyre after his arrival in Romania.
Charreyre’s approach to getting Romania back to a competitive level was to first return confidence to the back line and rebuild the forward pack.
To achieve such ends the new coach chose to develop talented Romanians playing in the French first division like Florin Corodeanu, Petre Balan, Ovidiu Tonita and Marius Tincu.
During their training sessions Charreyre also demanded that their back line take some initiative and 'play with French flair', encouraging the likes of Romeo Gontineac, Gabriel Brezoianu, Cristian Sauan and Ionut Tofan to take risks and experiment on the field.
So rigorous was he infact that at training the Romanians called him the Little Napoleaon.
However the Little Napolean did not lead his troops to a Berezina. Four months after he arrived, Romania won the European Nations Cup B and qualified for the RWC 2003 in Australia.
Wants fourth place
The Romanians have played in every Rugby World Cup and for their fifth Tournament, Charreyre wants his side to place at least fourth in their pool.
“Our aim is to be in 4th place and we will do it if we beat Namibia,” said the Romanian coach.
“But we will also give problems to Argentina and Ireland and will avoid a big defeat against Australia.”
Charreyre has attempted to bring both professionalism and specialist knowledge to Romanian rugby in just two years that he has been at the helm.
His impact on the nation’s beloved code will be there for the world to see when they take on Ireland in Gosford on 11 October and if the new coach could give any advice to his new opponents it would surely be to be sure to bring their lucky clover.