Lyn Jones’ side dodged a potential banana skin in Bucharest with a 37-10 victory.
The bonus-point win left them just three points behind Pool 3 leaders Newcastle Falcons and targeting a place in the knock-out stages of Europe for only the second time.
“We want to win our group and want to go through to the quarters in our own right,” said director or rugby Jones.
“We are very confident that we can build on the win in Bucharest and win the return game as well as beating Newcastle and Stade Francais.
“They are three games well within our reach and winning with such a strong performance in Bucharest bodes well. It’s critical that we get another bonus-point win on Friday because we are playing towards rounds five and six.”
The Romanians threatened to wreck Newport’s ambitions when they raced into an early 10-0 lead at the Ghencea Stadium before skipper Andrew Coombs got his side back on track with two tries.
“We were very pleased with the performance and the result. It was -1 degrees, very wet, very muddy and those games can be as hard or as simple as you want to make them,” said Jones. “It was a job well done, ten out of ten for our players.”
Bucharest may have one of the smallest budgets in the European Challenge Cup and are still seeking a first win at the bottom of a highly competitive pool.
But Lynn Howell’s side will be desperate to retain their proud record of having won at least one game in each of their previous ten European campaigns.
