ROMANIA coach Lynn Howells says his team can compete against Ireland on Sunday, despite having just four days to recover from their defeat to France on Wednesday.

Welshman Howells, and over 50,000 spectators, saw his side lose 38-11 to France in Pool D as Sofian Guitoune scored a brace of tries.

However, Romania dominated possession, forced eight turnovers and had a try disallowed in the first half, matching their opponents for the opening half-hour.

A sin-binning of prop Paulica Ion proved costly, though Valentin Ursache claimed a deserved late try, with Howells adamant his side can push Ireland despite their short turnaround.

“There are no injuries, now it’s about recovery and making sure I have a full squad to select from.

“The expectations are the same. We want to go out and play, prove that we can compete and I think for 60 minutes we can compete.

“What we’re looking for from Ireland is more of the same but fewer points.”

Romania will return to the Olympic Stadium on Sunday to face Ireland, who Howells expects to offer a different kind of threat to that posed by France.

“Everybody knows how Ireland are going to play — they’re not going to change,” said Howells.

“It will be more of a kicking game. Their ability to turn the ball over very quickly and keep the ball fluid will be the same as tonight.

“We won’t be as lucky in the set-pieces but we look forward to it — they pose a different challenge.”

France coach Philippe Saint-Andre was pleased to claim a second victory in five days, the primary reason for using almost all of his squad — 13 changes were made for the Romania match.

“We played with speed but we fought a lot and after four days it’s difficult to fight again. You cannot ask a boxer to fight again after four days.”

Though Saint-Andre expecting a physical battle upfront against the Romanians, he expressed disappointment with the performance of his team in the opening half-hour, which ended 3-3.

“We know the Romanians are good in the contest and one to ones, so we waited 30 mins before we could get some speed and we scored two tries.

“After the 60th minute the game opened up because we got more of the ball — it’s true in the first half-hour we did not satisfy the expectations that we had.”

France improved thereafter to secure a bonus-point win as Yannick Nyanga, Gael Fickou and the impressive Wesley Fofana all scored, while Guitoune did so twice.

Morgan Parra and Rory Kockott kicked 13 points collectively as first-choice kicker Frederic Michalak was rested, leaving France top of Pool D.

Ireland won their opening game 50-7 against Canada in Cardiff, and most expect their match with France at the same venue to be a decider for who tops the group.

Such an honour would almost certainly avoid a quarter-final against the All Blacks, and not potentially meeting the champions until the final, undoubtedly an advantage in looking to progress in this tournament.