German players (L-R) Eric Marks, Jarrid Els and Samy Fuechsel celebrate after the victory in Rugby Europe Championship match Germany v Romania on February 11, 2017 in Offenbach (AFP Photo/Jürgen Keßler)

Berlin (AFP) - Germany earned an historic first win over Romania on Saturday after fighting back to seal a 41-38 victory in the Rugby Europe Championship -- the tier below the Six Nations.

This was the Germans' first win over Romania in 70 years as they came from 24-20 down at half-time with winger Marcel Coetzee scoring the winning try just before the final whistle in Offenbach, near Frankfurt.

"This win over Romania is crazy, historic" beamed Germany's captain, Australian-born scrum-half Sean Armstrong, after the final whistle.

"We were behind at half-time and fought our way back."

Flanker Jacobus Otto led the way with two of Germany's five tries, all of which were converted by South-African-born fly-half Raynor Parkinson who weighed in with 16 points.

This is the second time this season Germany, 24th in the world, has beaten a side ranked above them with World Cup experience, after squeezing past Uruguay 24-21 in November before back-to-back wins over Brazil.

Germany face a tough away match next weekend when they travel to play Georgia, who beat Belgium 31-6 in Brussels on Saturday while Spain saw off Russia 16-6 in Madrid in the competition's opening weekend.

The Rugby Europe Championship acts as a qualifier for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.