Spain now pin their hopes on beating Georgia on 28 October to end second in the pool and so be able to find their way towards répechage, but they play Georgia in Tblisi.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for the Lions of Spain, for ten of the Oaks play for either the Top 14 or Pro D2 in France.

Spain started well enough when flyhalf kicked a dropped goal. Florin Vlaicu equalised with a penalty but then a fine Spanish three-quarter movement ended with a try for Rafael Álvarez to give Spain an 8-3 leader. But a try by veteran centre Romeo Gontineac, who was injured in scoring the try and replaced by experienced Ionut Tofan, and a penalty try gave Romania a 17-8 lead at half-time. The penalty try was awarded when prop Petrisor Toderasc was impeded when about to score a try.

Romania started the second half at speed and soon added two tries to their half-time score. Young Catalin Fercu and fullback Vlaicu were the scorers. Not that Spain gave up, for their three-quarters kept running and there were good tries for César Sempere and Álvar Enciso. while replacement scrumhalf Vali Calafeteanu and Vlaicu scored for Roamnia.

For Spain

Tries: Álvarez, Sempere, Enciso
Con: Roque
Drop: Roqué

For Romania:
Tries: Gontineac, Fercu, Calafeteanu, Vlaicu 2, penalty try
Cons: Vlaicu 5
Pen: Vlaicu

Teams:

Spain: 15 César Sempere, 14 Víctor Marlet , 13 Javier Canosa, 12 Álvar Enciso, 11 Rafael Álvarez, 10 Esteban Roqué, 9 Pablo Feijóo, 8 Óscar Astarloa, 7 Alfonso Mata, 6 Rafael Camacho, 5 César Bernasconi, 4 Andrew Ebbet,  3 Javier Salazar, 2 Mathieu Cidré, 1 Miguel Burgaleta.
Replacements: 16 Diego Zarzosa, 17 Ion Insausti, 18 Carlos Souto, 19 Juan González, 20 Carles Badía, 21 Andrei Kovalenco, 22 David Mota

Romania:  15 Florin Vlaicu, 14 Catalin Fercu, 13 Catalin Dascalu, 12 Romeo Gontineac, 11 Gabriel Brezoianu, 10 Ionut Dimofte, 9 Lucian Sirbu, 8 Ovidiu Tonita, 7 Cosmin Ratiu, 6  Florin Corodeanu, 5 Petre Cristian, 4 Sorin Socol,  3 Petrisor Toderasc, 2 Razvan Mavrodin, 1 Petru Balan.
Replacements: 16 Cezar Popescu, 17 Bogdan Zebega, 18 Bogdan Balan, 19 Costica Mersoiu, 20 Calafeteanu, 21 Ionut Tofan, 22 Catalin Nicolae

Referee: Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
Touch judges: Rob Dickson, Ronnie Dumma (both Scotland)