The plight of Romanian rugby, already known to be severe, is set to take a turn for the worse in a salutary tale for the International Rugby Board and many of its smaller Unions who are finding it difficult to fund the game at international level.

Romania's woes as they continue to slip from the heights of the 1980s and early 1990s, when the "Oak Leaves" beat France, Scotland and Wales among others, were highlighted by the IRB's official television programme, "The World of Rugby".

The IRB say they are "investing substantially" in Romanian rugby but the programme told of a national side in disarray, undermined by a poor coaching structure and a seemingly unstoppable drain of top players out of the country.

New Zealander John Phillips, the national team coach formerly in charge at Bridgend in Wales and Rotherham in England, said: "Romania had a professional system when the game was amateur, but when the game went professional they were left treading water, and very deep water at that.

"They've done very well to survive under extreme hardship."

The end of state-run communism under former president Nicolae Ceausescu failed to signal prosperity for either the Romanian people or, more specifically, the rugby-playing fraternity.

"The main reason for the collapse is of a financial nature," explained Theodor Radulescu, coaching adviser to the Romanian Rugby Federation. "Simply, there is no money.

"A large number of players left to play abroad, mostly in France, some of them in the third, fourth or even fifth division. Over 80 players have left."

Romania were not disgraced in last year's Rugby World Cup, when players like scrum-half Petre Mitu showed their talents, but the mass exodus has left the domestic game struggling.

Catalin Draguceanu, who captained the side in their recent 80-point, 12-try humiliation by New Zealand A in Bucharest, announced he is emigrating with his family to Australia.

Another international, Gheorghe Solomie, said: "Virtually all players of a certain standard go abroad, to France in particular, for obvious reasons: a better life. In Romania, you can barely make ends meet. In France we are reasonably well paid."

Phillips wants action taken against French clubs who block player release for Romanian national duty. "We've got to make sure that the good players come back and represent Romania at national level all the time. We don't need all the hassles we tend to have, especially with the French clubs, of getting players released."

But after the hammering by NZ A, the heaviest in Romania's history, former FRR president Viorel Morariu sounded a dire warning: "The Federation must go back to the drawing board at all age groups [of rugby].

"We need to review our coaching methods which are now obsolete. We have simply failed to keep up with the professional game."

It seems, in the light of the re-working of the Pacific Rim tournament for 2001, that the gap between rugby's haves and have-nots is getting ever wider.

Great days of Romanian rugby:

1983 Romania 24 Wales 6 in Bucharest
1984 Romania 28 Scotland 22 in Bucharest
1988 Wales 9 Romania 15 in Cardiff
1990 France 6 Romania 12 in Auch
1991 Romania 18 Scotland 12 in Bucharest