It took until the last round of the European Championship to confirm who would go directly to the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan as Europe’s entry.
It was an absorbing series. The 2017 and 2018 European Rugby Championship doubled as the European Cup and the Rugby World Cup 2019 European qualifier. All six nations – Belgium, Georgia, Germany, Romania, Russia and Spain – took part in the Cup. However, for the World Cup qualifiers, all games involving Georgia were not considered as Georgia had direct entry to the finals.
There were changing fortunes right from the opening game in 2019 when the favourites, Romania, were beaten by Germany and that loss opened the door to Germany, Russia and Spain. Romania later caused an upset when they beat Georgia but that result was not included in the qualification process.
Romania also beat their main rivals, Spain, to lead the table at the end of the 2017 season. The table had Romania on 15, Spain 13, Russia nine, Germany eight and Belgium on two points. At this point, only Belgium were out of the reckoning.
Germany were then eliminated as a threat when there was an upheaval in the German Rugby Verbund (DRV). Despite doing well in 2017 and showing big improvements in their playing standards, German rugby changed administration and reverted to amateur philosophies, not selecting Germans playing in France and not paying well so good players couldn’t afford to take time off work, causing strikes by players and staff. As a result, Germany did not win a game in 2018, losing 85-6 to Romania, and could be relegated to B division for 2019.
The next crunch game was the Russia-Spain match played in Russia. Both sides were even before Spain pulled away to a 20-13 lead. With a minute to play, a Russian player dived around a ruck but the Spanish Leones (Lions) pushed him back.
No-one on the field saw him ground the ball next to the posts until the television commentators advised that the ball had been grounded. It was too late, as the Russian Rugby Union had not appointed a TMO for the match (too expensive, they said) so 20-13 was the final score and the hosts were out of the running. A 20-all draw would have kept Russia in the race.
That only left Romania and Spain vying for the top spot so the clash in Madrid was important to both sides. A crowd of 15,800 packed the Madrid University ground (despite its official capacity of just 12,000), with Spain needing to win to stay in contention. A 22-10 victory to the hosts not only had them level with Romania but put them in the lead in the head-to-head points and denied Romania a much-needed bonus point.
In the next round, Romania needed a bonus point against Russia to stay ahead of Spain. After the Spanish fiasco, Russia sacked its coach, Aleksandr Pervukhin, and appointed Irishman Mark McDermott. Romania won 25-15, scoring four tries to two, but it wasn’t good enough for the bonus point, as a difference of three tries is required. To qualify, Romania could only hope that Spain was beaten by both Belgium and Germany.
On the same day as the Romania-Russia game, Spain travelled to Tbilisi to face Georgia. A 30,000-strong crowd packed the ground and although Spain showed how much they had improved, were no match for the Lelos, who won 23-10. This match had no bearing on Rugby World Cup qualification but did matter for the European Cup.
Spain’s last home game was against Germany and to show how much rugby’s profile has increased there, the King of Spain attended along with 15,750 spectators. The king mixed with players and fans on the field after the match. It was a 12-try-to-one rout as Spain defeated the German ‘amateurs’ 84-10. In the same round, Romania thrashed Belgium, 62-12, which included three penalty tries conceded by Belgium.
Spanish magazine ‘Marca’ following the Spain-Germany game.
So it came down to the final round. The Germany-Russia and Georgia-Romania games had no bearing on Rugby World Cup qualification. For the record, Russia beat Germany 57-3 in Cologne and Georgia beat Romania 25-16 in front of a 38,000-strong crowd in Tbilisi.
But it was the Belgium-Spain game that was important. If Spain won or drew then they were through to the Rugby World Cup. If they, lost, then Romania would qualify directly.
It seemed straightforward. In two years, Belgium had won only one game, against Germany, and had lost their others by quite large margins.
The referee and both assistant referees were from Romania. Spain asked for them to be replaced by referees from another country, fearing they would not be neutral, but the request was disallowed by Rugby Europe.
So a farce ensued. The penalty count was 28-8 in favour of the Belgians – that’s right, one every three minutes – and Belgium led 12-0 (with four penalty goals) at halftime. A Spanish player was later given a yellow card and Belgium kicked another goal.
At the 70-minute mark, Spain scored the only try of the match and four minutes later they kicked a penalty goal. At 15-10, the scores were close but another penalty allowed Belgium to take an 18-10 lead, which would stand until full-time.
At full-time, the Spanish players chased the referees from the field and may face sanctions because of this. World Rugby, meanwhile, have comfirmed they are investigating the match.
Romania will be in pool A with Ireland, Scotland and Japan and will contest the Rugby World Cup opener against Japan. Spain will now have to play their Iberian neighbours, Portugal, with the winner playing a home-and-away series against Samoa for the right to enter the Rugby World Cup finals.
rebel
Guest
If thats the case the WR should be the sole authority in appointing referees in all internationals. I personally think its overkill as I have never focussed that much on the ref.
rebel
Guest
So basically a mess.
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
Totally agree with ChrisG. Long term it can only be a good thing if World Rugby involves itself more with Tier two and three. I also think there is room for money-making growth here, hence I think a lot of rugby fans don't mind watching Tier two internationals if there are two evenly matched teams, a solid ref, and something to play for.
cuw
Guest
The top 12 from the previous RWC qualify. that is the biggest difference between rugger and footy. cannot really compare cricket - becoz there are anyway only a few with test / ODI , but again as i recall the top 8 ranked are automatic qualifiers ( but not from the last world cup). in fact right now West Indies are playing in a tournament with associates to qualify for next world cup - coz they are ranked 9 in ICC table. the way rugger goes about selecting teams for a world cup and then seeding them really needs a rethink.
ChrisG
Roar Rookie
Rebel - I imagine that there will be a lot more matches however that is not a bad thing. As stated by others I also believe that World Rugby need to own the issue, and if that requires more investment in tier 2 officiating then so be it.
Bakkies
Guest
'If they did they would force England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to join Rugby Europe' They are all members of Rugby Europe.
Bakkies
Guest
They started to get good attendances a couple of years back. A lot of Brits were still stationed in Germany up until recently.
Bakkies
Guest
'In rugby some qualify due to their world ranking. Some from topping their comp. Some from a convoluted around the world series of qual matches. The whole thing is a mess.' Not really. The top 12 from the previous RWC qualify. Sanzaar isn't a confederation. It is a basket case organisation that governs Super Rugby and the 4 Nations. Australia and NZ are in the Oceania confederation. For the 1999 RWC Australia qualified by playing the likes of Fiji in the Oceania playoffs. SA are in Rugby Africa and Argentina in the Americas confederation.
piru
Roar Rookie
This is why we can't have nice things Thanks Neutral, interesting topic
terrence
Guest
..if the officiating proves fraudulent, then there is no other option but to void the result and call for a replay of the match..
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
There is a rather dark story why Germany had a pretty good team back then. AH was a massive fan of all things Brittish and his dream was that Germany and England should become allies and rule the world together. And a small part of AH's love for all things Brittish was that the government backed rugby very hard. Then came the war and pretty much all German rugby players were killed and after the war no-one wanted to "touch" the sport in Germany, for obvious reasons. It is interesting that rugby still scores very well as a TV-sport in Germany, the World Cup, and the 6N is usually on FTA and has very good viewing numbers.
rebel
Guest
Agree in football everyone except the host nation has to qualify, usually through their confederation. Simple. In rugby some qualify due to their world ranking. Some from topping their comp. Some from a convoluted around the world series of qual matches. The whole thing is a mess. I am happy for confederations to look after themselves however discrepancies should be investigated. Unfortunately rugby isn't big enough yet to have all qualify via confederations and our confederations aren't simple, just look at SANZAAR. For Rugby to try and replicate what works well in football, the international competitions as we know them woukd change forever. The big boys wouldn't be prepared to give that up just yet. Ideally ot would be great, but just not feasible.
Harry Kimble
Roar Guru
Germany was quite strong in the 1930s. When France was kicked out of the 5 nations, it formed European Rugby (FIRA) and spread the game to other European nations. Germany even played Romania in 1940 after Britain suspended internationals due to the war.
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
It is fair point rebel, but at the end of the day, World Rugby has to own their own competition. To use local competitions as World Cup Qualifiers might be the real mistake here. The qualifiers for the FIFA WC is only qualifiers and nothing else, and they are "owned" by FIFA. The local championships are "owned" by the local federations.
cuw
Guest
Spain ask for controversial Rugby World Cup qualifier against Belgium to be replayed as they lodge complaint http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-5525093/Spain-ask-Rugby-World-Cup-qualifier-v-Belgium-replayed.html
cuw
Guest
yes - and there is a reason most things are decentralized. one has to look at recent history and see if such potentially controversial appointments are common - of if this is a one off. have not seen in press such issues being discussed - so i hazard a guess that this is a single case of bias. the Romanian President who made the appointment shud be held accountable. it seems he was clearly biased - when he rejected the request to change the ref , months in advance. after all WR pulled the saffa ref at the last minute in the 6N match.
cuw
Guest
xcept when there was blatant abuse of power. according to neutral experts the issue was not the ref was wrong - it was that he punished only one side for fouls while the other side was not. am sure this also happens but when it is very obvious and on multiple times - then it becomes a problem. in any game/sport , where it is clear that the ref/umpire/judge has acted impartially - there are consequences. i know for fact that in cricket and football umps n refs have been suspended and/banned for match fixing. while those cases were for money and this case is for another reason, the same shud apply.
rebel
Guest
Chris on your last point, that is probably a lot more matches than you think. For example the top two teams of the B 6 nations directly qualified for the WC. So essentially every match in that tournament was a WC qualifier. I think someting should be done to tighten things up, but WR has sub confederations around the world for a reason. Otherwise WR would be an administrative behemoth.
piru
Roar Rookie
Agree with this
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
5. World Rugby appoint all match officials for future games where the result has a bearing on teams gaining a place in a World Cup. That is a great call ChrisG. Hopefully, that is the good news that will come out of this mess long term. World Rugby simply has to "own" every part of their flagship tournament and protect its integrity and credibility with a passion.