The story of the first women’s rugby team in Romania was started and carried on by Eusebiu Popa, a teacher with 33 operations suffered on the left foot.
The stern and the current generation of “Măți”. Photo taken on August 2 PHOTO Personal Collection
If you imagine that only boys know how to make plywood and score essays, then you have certainly never heard about the ambition that helped the German Eusebiu Popa to move the mountains and to inception in Romania the first team of girls who practice rugby. He is the man who, at the age of 29, set up Venus Piatra-Neamț, the club that gave the first domestic women’s rugby team. In November 1991, Rugby Club Venus Piatra-Neamț was established with boys groups, and five years later, the first female rugby team was born in this club. In a time when there was not even the equality of chances, Popa was a roadblock. This is how the rugby team appeared in 7, “Black Mălei” (written “black branches”), juniors recognized by the multitude of trophies and cups won. Ousebiu Popa passed the years, and the medical problems multiplied, but the German does not abdicate, although it has the left foot amputated.
The coach, along with Loredana Juncănariu, former player in Venus, now international arbitrator
The nationwide of the national girls
Rugby Club Venus started its activity no two years after the Revolution, with the first generations of boys, so that since 1996 the club’s activity will focus on female rugby, by establishing the first team of girls in the country, in May. Some of the athletes raised and formed by Eusebiu Popa later arrived in the national senior group. The first workouts were made on the plateau at the Circle of the housewives, then to the beach, so that the team would find a place on the regiment.
Fierce fight for oval balloon
For the club, the first competitions followed, just one year after the establishment, in 1992, at the Bebe Boboc Memorial, the team being made up of children from General Schools 3, 4 and 12 of Piatra-Neamț. With the establishment of the girls’ team and the dispute of the first official match, the participation in international competitions follows, where they take place on the podium. Rugby Club Venus becomes one of the most valuable and appreciated teams in Romania and manages to export its reputation abroad.
Double national champion at seniors
Venus began to draw attention to his results. In 2000, the girls ranked 3rd at “Heineken Rugby Sevens” from Amsterdam (the Netherlands). In the 2005-2006 season, the national title to female rugby, senior, arrived in Piatra Neamț. In 2006, in France, with the national female team won Group B, the promotion being recorded. Also in 2006, this time with the Venus band, the first place was obtained at a rugby tour in Belgium. Another notable performance obtained after only 6 months of training is the third place at the National Junior Championship, in 2013. Two years later, in 2015, the Germans participated in the “United World Games” in Germany, obtaining the third place. Also on the podium was ranked the team at Rugbylja Cup in Milan, in 2016. The internal record involves national champion titles (2005 and 2006), senior national vice -champions (2007 and 2008), 3rd place in Junior (2013), 4th place in Junior (2012), winning the regional championship in the small junior, in 2017.
The first girls match in December 1996
Image for history: On December 22, 1996, the first female rugby match was played
“Black mugs” are now a Romanian brand. The little ones are currently training outside the city. The current group of Rugby Club Venus Rifil Piatra-Neamt is made up of Paula Ciorobâtcă (captain), Karina Lămătic (Vicecăpitan), Izabela Barna, Maria Fulga, Alexandra Popa, Amalia Buftea, Iris Addoae, Karina Pașcu, but also the little Ayana Pascal and Eva Ana. The “father” of the team, Eusebiu Popa (58 years old), remembers how it all started. “After a tour in Italy with the team of boys of the club, I saw at Rovigo the local rugby team and so I came up with the idea to try a female rugby team. Thus, June 1, 1996 became the date of establishing the first female rugby team, Petrotrans Venus. And on August 15, the affiliation was held at FR Rugby. The first rugby girls’ match was played on December 22, 1996, in Cluj, between U and Venus, and the return was played in July 1997, in Piatra-Neamț. Until October 1998, I played with the boys in the North Moldova rugby championship. Then rugby was played in 15. Now, in the country there are 5 teams in seniors and 8 juniors, at the level of rugby in 7. While in Italy, the first female rugby match played in 1985, in us, this happened only in 2006“Says Popa for” Truth “.
The wicked of the plywood brought them the nickname
How was the name of the team born? “Alignment of the Black Maze came due to the fact that the girls had black equipment, and one of the colleagues expressed: “What your girls have, that they are placing the boys like bad hands.” From here they became black and rugby registered. Most girls who play rugby are students, students, military personnel, teachers, IT. The budget is provided only from the private environment. Everything is free, we are the only private club in the county where parents do not pay any tax. Now, I am dealing with girls in the primary and secondary cycle. At matches the rugby game regulations are respected, whether they are boys or girls“.
Venus team logo, registered trademark
The conditions are not of the best, but the teacher goes on: “We train 15 km from Piatra-Neamț, in Bodești commune, and I am helped by the coordinator Amalia Buftea, a student at the Pedagogical College Gheorghe Asachi, especially since in recent years I have dealt with the team, with a rolling chair, and from March this year I am with prosthesis.“.
“Either I am crazy, or I open my nightclub”
Where does the Popa “recruit” the players? “The selection is done by going through schools (even in one foot), from the Economic High School and the Pedagogical High School. At first, they all watched me like a bau-bau. When I set up the team, I was told that” either I am crazy, I open my nightclub “. Continued high performance Irina Harjete, Loredana Juncănariu, Georgiana (Gabor) Ciocârtău and Diana Mândrilaș ”.
Fierce fight for possession between little girls
In 2024 i amputated the gamba
The coach’s relationship with rugby begins in 1983. History also contains his two daughters, who are now 18, respectively 35 years. He was 29 when he set up the team that now contains 14 players. Since 2010, Popa has been retired in case of illness. It has prosthesis to the left and moves with a frame. Not even thinking. “Medical problems started in 2009 from a burn. I put my foot on a hot radiator, in 2010 my first fingers were cut. And diabetes began to ravage. Plus the nosocomial infections we took from the Piatra-Neamț hospital. Between 2009-2019 there were 32 operations. The last, and the hardest, 33rd, took place in October 2024, when I was amputated my left leg leg“.
At the local level, Popa received appreciation. On May 6, 2025 he was made a citizen of honor of the municipality of Piatra-Neamț. “This title is an honor but at the same time obliges me“Says the teacher.
Sport, used as a medicine
Eusebiu Popa lives for sport with oval balloon. “Rugby is a way of life, forms and educates. I can say that thanks to this wonderful sport I had the power to overcome the difficult moments of life, over all health problems. Rugby and my two girls are what happened to me better in this life and I want to thank my girls for understanding because I often put rugby in the first place. With the help of God, I hope to continue to do beautiful things even if my health is not the best. I am glad that I can bring children to rugby, very difficult, but because the first thing I fight is the mentality of parents who associate rugby with injuries, hands or legs, blows, which is not true, all the more so as girls play rugby in 7, and lately touch. However, I also had cases in which the children wanted to come to rugby but did not want their parents, but also cases in which one of the parents wanted the other, no. I am faithful to my principle with which I started this project: quality, not quantity, so I prefer to work with a small group that wants to perform, which gives 100% for every workout. I thank the girls in the team for helping me a lot in training and showing in every match that they are guided by our two motto: “here is not” for one and one for all “. I know it is hard for them because the training starts with one hour before reaching the field, there are girls not only from Piatra-Neamț, but also from Dumbrava Roșie, Roșnov, Bodești, Roman and the minibus pass to each to take them and bring them to the field“, Declared Professor Eusebiu Popa for RugbyRomania.ro, in 2021, 30 years after the club’s establishment.
Professor Popa, awarded by Alin Petrache, President FR Rugby
