I WAS presented with a post-match dilemma when the woman sat next to me at Ghencea Stadium, whose husband played for Romania in the 1970s, wanted a bit of background information on Welsh rugby.

She wanted to know how many teams there are in Wales and where Newport Gwent Dragons, who had just run over her Bucharest side 37-10, were ranked.

A kind person would have told her four and not to fear, the Rodney Parade region were a leading side... alas I couldn't lie. I told her that the Dragons were fourth out of four, prompting her shoulders to slump.

Bucharest were beaten pretty comfortably by a professional team who are at the bottom end of the three frontline leagues, better than Treviso, Zebre and London Welsh and on a similar level to Cardiff Blues, Edinburgh, Newcastle, London Irish, La Rochelle and Lyon.

It shows there is plenty of work to be done if Romanian rugby is to thrive, which is why the European Rugby Challenge Cup is so important.

It needs a bit of tinkering – the winners simply have to be rewarded with a Champions Cup place – but the competition exposes Bucharest, a side composed of players from the domestic league, to a higher standard of rugby.

Hopefully in time there will be a thriving third-tier tournament in order to qualify for the Challenge Cup and perhaps that will lead to more shocks.

Maybe in the long-term it will be more beneficial if Romanian club sides like champions Timisoara or Baia Mare, who would benefit from being a tight unit that play with each other all season, compete rather than the Wolves.

But encouragement needs to be given to developing countries because Romania, said to be a passionate rugby country, is a land where the Dan Carter's left boot is no rival for that of Christian Chivu.

National coach Lynn Howells has an ambitious target for next year's World Cup that pits them against France, Ireland, Italy and Canada: "We want two wins, then we go automatically to Japan in 2019".

The Wolves certainly didn't disgrace themselves in Bucharest and fingers crossed they will pose a few problems for the Dragons at Rodney Parade tomorrow evening, because a one-sided drubbing will do nobody any good.

Romanian rugby has a rich history and in the 1980s they were among the leading sides in the world before a decline that coincided with the revolution.

Now their national side, with a core of France-based players, is 17th in the global rankings and the rest of Europe needs to give them a helping hand rather than just remembering them every four years.