The Scots laboured to a 10-point win in front of 12,500 fans at Rugby Park but did little to strike fear into the rest of their pool B rivals.
Their scrum was second-rate, even third-rate at times. The Scots' basic skills were sloppy at best, and they looked too eager, blowing some clear scoring opportunities.
Romania, for its part, out-enthused the Scots. It was tenacious on defence and the longer the game went on, the better it looked, particularly in the forward exchanges.
Former All Black prop Steve McDowell, the Romanians' technical coach, was not surprised the Oaks stepped up and competed with the Scots.
"The expectation was to be competitive and we certainly were," McDowell said.
"One, it was physically hard; and two, it was mentally hard, so for those boys it was a great lesson."
The Romanians defended staunchly for the majority of the second half before tiring, and the Scots crossed for two tries in the last 20 minutes to clinch the win.
"I think our guys were mentally fatigued by the end of that period of concentration," McDowell said.
Romania stays in Invercargill for its next game, against Argentina this Saturday.
"Physically, in the forwards, I know we can match them but their pace in the backs really has the potential to dazzle us."
For Scotland, the first 70 minutes was mostly forgettable, but captain Alastair Kellock could at least be satisfied with a belated lift in intensity.
"We had to come back - we were in a tough situation with about 10, 15 minutes to go," Kellock said.
"Credit to us, we overcame the errors, which we have to do if we are going to win games in this tournament."
Kellock said the Scots had a lot of work to do on the basics, particularly holding on to the ball. But he was excited about the potential shown by the backline.
"I thought Sean Lamont and the back three were outstanding. They had to work on limited ball and they showed how dangerous they are when they got it, so that's a positive."
No 8 Richie Vernon was a late hero for Scotland. With the sides level at 24-24, Vernon made a scorching run down the sideline and delivered a perfect pass to winger Simon Danielli to set up the match-winning try.
Danielli found himself at the end of the chain minutes later to score another and stretch the lead to 10 points.
Scotland scored the first two tries of the game, through halfback Mike Blair and centre Joe Ansbro.
But the Romanians clawed their way back, capitalising on some handing errors and some strong scrumaging. Prop Mihaita Lazar and No 8 Daniel Carpo scored bullocking tries for the Oaks.
THE SCORES
• Scotland 34
Simon Danielli 2, Mike Blair, Joe Ansbro tries; Chris Paterson con, 4 pen
• Romania 24
Mihaita Lazar, Daniel Carpo tries; Marin Dumbrava 2 pen, Tiberius Dimofte con, 2 pen
• Halftime: Scotland 18-11