KEY POINTS:
EDINBURGH - Scotland will look to move up a gear on home turf when they take on Romania in their second pool C match tomorrow.
Coach Frank Hadden's side have spent their time so far in France at their St Etienne base and they opened with a comfortable, if not totally convincing, 56-10 win over debutants Portugal.
But Romania, who gave Italy all sorts of problems in their opener before going down 24-18, will be a different prospect at Murrayfield, a week before the big match against New Zealand, also in Edinburgh.
Skipper Jason White, who is back to full fitness following months on the sidelines with a knee injury, warned his squad not to expect another romp like the 48-6 win the Scots had over Romania in a test last November.
On that occasion, the east Europeans were unable to field several of their top players who were on duty with their club sides in France.
"Romania look very good," White said.
"We know it's going to be tough. We need to play well and get that bonus point.
"We never ever thought it was going to be easy and watching that game [against Italy] reinforced it will be tough."
The Scots carried over several injuries from the Portugal game including Nathan Hines (bruised ankle and knee), flanker Allister Hogg (dead leg), winger Sean Lamont (ankle) and brother Rory (bruised shoulder), but all are back in training and should be fit for Romania.
But Hadden will likely have to do without in-form centre Andrew Henderson as he continues to battle his way back to full fitness from a leg injury that he has been carrying for the last few weeks.
Rory Lamont, who scored two tries against the Portuguese, agreed that the Scots were far from perfect in their opener, but he believes they will improve as the tournament goes on.
"That is definitely an element - that we are ring-rusty. From a team perspective, it is a long time since we played together so I think as we play more games we will get better."
Romania's plans have been hit by the news that veteran prop Petru Balan will miss the rest of the World Cup due to an injury to his left knee.
The east Europeans are regular contestants in the World Cup finals, but have yet to make it past the group stages.
Team manager Robert Antonin knows that they are unlikely to break that mould this time round.
"Our objective is to win two games," the Frenchman said.
"It's always the same with us. We want to beat Portugal and produce a big performance against Scotland.
AFP
