Rugby player

Florin Vlaicu (born 26 July 1986 in Bucharest) is a Romanian rugby union player. He plays as a fly half or centre for professional Liga Națională de Rugby club SCM Timișoara. He can also play as a fullback, thus being considered a utility back due to his versatility. He is Romania's all time leading point scorer and the most capped player.

Contents

• 1 Club career
  • 1.1 Junior years
  • 1.2 Senior years
  • 1.3 Provincial / State sides
• 2 International career
  • 2.1 Records
• 3 Honours
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Club career

Florin in 2017 playing for Steaua hitting the ball with his trademark shot

Junior years

Vlaicu started playing rugby at RC Flamingo București, an amateur rugby club that recruited schoolboys suited for the sport. He then moved to local club RC Grivița București, where he continued his junior years.

Senior years

After finishing his junior career he joined local giants Steaua. After 8 seasons with Steaua, with a brief stint with RCM Timișoara for whom he played one single match in 2011, he was signed in early 2014 by RCJ Farul Constanța, where he played for the whole season. Beginning with 2015 a move to local team CSM Olimpia București followed. After an impressive performance at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Vlaicu was signed by Italian club Calvisano. After just one season with the Italians, Vlaicu returned to home soil, this time joining his former team Steaua. After 2 seasons we was once again signed by CSM București who had big ambitions at that moment in establishing a powerful side in order to capture both SuperLiga and Romanian Cup trophies. In 2019 his third spell with giants Steaua begun following the dissolution of his former club, CSM.

Provincial / State sides

Vlaicu was also selected between 2005 and 2015 for the State side *embled to play in the European Cups, namely București Wolves.

International career

Vlaicu made his international debut in 2006 as a subs*ute against Ukraine. He played for Romania in the IRB Nations Cup and in their 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying before appearing for them in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He played two Tests at the World Cup as a subs*ute against both Scotland and the All Blacks, scoring a penalty against the latter. He also played at the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He reached his 100th cap on 11 March 2017 when Romania played against Belgium in Brussels.

Records

Vlaicu set a series of records during his career. He is the most capped Romanian player at international level with 128 caps so far. As of October 2021 he was the second leading active top point scorer in international rugby, with 1024 points (6th in the all-time rankings). Florin is also the most prolific point scorer for Romania at the Rugby World Cup with 28 points scored over three tournaments. On 13 March 2021 Vlaicu surp*ed the 1000 point mark, kicking three penalties to help Romania overcome Portugal in the 2021 Rugby Europe Championship.

Honours

Steaua București

• Liga Națională de Rugby (1): 2006
• Romanian Cup (3): 2006, 2007, 2019

RCM Timișoara

• Romanian Cup (1): 2011

CSM București

• Romanian Cup (1): 2018

Romania

• Rugby Europe Championships (3): 2004–06, 2008–10, 2016–17

See also

• List of leading rugby union test point scorers
• List of rugby union test caps leaders

References

External links

• Florin Vlaicu at ESPNscrum
• Florin Vlaicu at ItsRugby.co.uk
• Florin Vlaicu at European Professional Club Rugby (archived)
• Florin Vlaicu at European Professional Club Rugby
• Florin Vlaicu at Romanian Rugby SuperLiga (in Romanian)