Socol back to lead Romania
PA Sport
September 27, 2007

Lock Sorin Socol will captain Romania against New Zealand on Saturday after being restored to the second row.

Socol missed Romania's narrow 14-10 victory over Portugal but returns to the side as one of nine changes made by head coach Daniel Santamans.

Prop Bogdan Balan keeps his place but moves across the front row to loose-head while flanker Florin Corodeanu switches to the open side.

Second row Cristian Petre, number eight Ovidiu Tonita, centre Romeo Gontineac and full-back Iulian Dumitras are the other survivors from the Portugal game.

Romania and New Zealand have only met once before, in Bucharest in 1981, with All Blacks winning 14-6 with tries from Jamie Salmon and Andy Dalton.

Romania:

1 Bogdan Balan
2 Marius Tincu
3 Silviu Florea
4 Sorin Socol (c)
5 Cristian Petre
6 Florin Corodeanu
7 Alexandru Manta
8 Ovidiu Tonita
9 Lucian Sirbu
10 Ionut Dimofte
11 Gabriel Brezoianu
12 Romeo Gontineac
13 Csaba Gal
14 Stefan Ciuntu
15 Iulian Dumitras

Replacements:

16 Razvan Mavrodin
17 Paulica Ion
18 Valentin Ursache
19 Cosmin Ratiu
20 Valentin Calafeteanu
21 Florin Vlaicu
22 Dan Vlad or Catalin Robert Dascalu

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