“Games against Baia Mare generally go down to the wire but on this occasion we controlled the game.”
The win completed an amazing past 18 months for Timisoara and Heikell — two Romanian Cup wins, one Kings Cup (subsidiary competition), a Superliga (Romania’s national competition) title and qualification for the European Challenge Cup.
“We’ll have a break now, then get back into training in late July,” said Heikell, who is in his second year with the club.
Timisoara booked their place in the Romanian Cup final by beating Steaua Bucharest 36-7.
“There was only a six-day turnaround for us, with Baia Mare having an extra day to recover and prepare. But the guys were motivated to win the cup for the third consecutive year,” Heikell said.
“However, the big goal was to qualify for the 2016-2017 European Challenge Cup competition.”
Timisoara booked a place in the playoffs by going through qualifying pool play unbeaten.
That earned them the right to play top Italian side Calvisano home and away in a qualifying decider.
“The first game was in Timisoara and, as expected, it was tough . . . made tougher by the fact we were only two games into our new season following an eight-week break,” Heikell said.
“Calvisano were nearing the end of the Eccellenza (Italy’s national competition) and were in first position, but we won 36-23.
“We were reminded of the level we were playing at when we relaxed in the last 15 minutes and Calvisano scored 17 points. We gave away a good points advantage for the second match.
A tough game“Calvisano had to beat us by more than 13 points so we knew we were in for a tough game against a side who did not want to lose their place in the European Challenge Cup.
“Calvisano tore into everything from the start but we responded well and at halftime led 6-3. The second half was again torrid and although we didn’t play our best rugby, due perhaps to nerves and pressure, we opened a comfortable lead late in the second half and won 28-17."
Heikell said qualifying for the European Challenge Cup was a huge achievement for the team and the club.
“The players were very excited and had every right to be proud of themselves. Given the resources of all the opposing teams in this competition, including stadiums, facilities, budgets, infrastructure and other systems, it’s fair to say we have been punching well above our weight, which adds even more credibility and prestige to our results.”
In the European Challenge Cup all qualifying teams are drawn into five pools of four teams who play each other twice on a home-and-away basis.
The competition comprises the bottom six teams from the English Premiership, the bottom seven from the French Top 14 and the bottom five from the European Pro 12, plus two qualifying teams (Timisoara and Russian side Enisei).
“Competition pool play involves two games in October, two in December and two in January, followed by playoffs in March and April,” Heikell said.
“We have a lot of work to do to raise our level but the players are determined to be competitive. It will be a big challenge but one we are all looking forward to.”
Heikell said an idea of the difficulty of the task could be gained from the experience of Calvisano this year. They were drawn in the same pool as Montpellier (France) and Harlequins (England), sides who went on to make the final this month. Montpellier won 26-19.
