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Rugby World Cup qualifiers in turmoil

2nd April, 2018
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Roar Guru
2nd April, 2018
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It started out as investigation of the Romanian referee, Vlad Iordachescu’s handling of the now infamous European qualifying match between Belgium and Spain, played in Brussels on 18th March.

Spain, who only lost one qualifier over the past year was down to play Belgium who had won only one match over the same period.

If Spain won, they were through to the Rugby World Cup but is they lost, then Romania would leap-frog into the Cup finals. With the Romanian referee, Belgium won, 18-10, kicking six penalty goals.

Before the match, the Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) had asked for a change of referees but Rugby Europe, chaired by a Romanian, Octavian Morariu, refused the request. When the game ended, the Spanish players chased the referee off the field. They would have man-handled him but was protected by Belgian players and officials.

There is sure to be an enquiry into this and at least six Spaniards could be cited.

The FER immediately contacted Rugby Europe after the game and asked for an investigation regarding the referee’s performance. Rugby Europe agreed and met on 23rd March and issued the following statement:-

“Rugby Europe referees’ selection committee met today in Poznan (Poland) to analyse the performance of the referees on the Belgium / Spain game, last game of the Rugby Europe Championship 2018 and Rugby World Cup 2019 qualifier.

“Committee’s members in attendance (Patrick Robin, Johan Meersman and Domenico Sironi) proceeded to the review of the game and compared their analysis with those of Rugby Europe and World Rugby supervisors.

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“The assessment will be provided to Rugby Europe Board members and to World Rugby, in accordance with their request.

“A Conference Call involving Rugby Europe Board members will be held on Monday 26th of March in the evening, to keep them up to date.

“The current situation is a matter of regret for Rugby Europe, who would like to express its willingness to communicate in a transparent way, to avoid damaging allegations for the image and values of our sport, the teams and the refereeing.”

Apparently, ten referees were used to dissect the game and from a leaked report, just over 50 per cent agreed with Iordachescu’s decisions. Strangely, the decision to give Spain a penalty as it was about to score a try was not reviewed.

The full details have not yet been released but on 26th March, Rugby Europe said the results would be made on 29th March after consultation with World Rugby. On 29th March, Rugby Europe said it needed more time to gather more information. It has already said it regretted that the referee was not changed for the match.

It is no longer just about the refereeing of the match and the Spanish players behaviour afterwards but has spread into players’ eligibility for various national teams. Each nation is accusing others of fielding ineligible players The first was the Romanian, Sione Faka’osilia, who was outed because he had played Tonga Sevens.

British and Irish Lions New Zealand Barbarians Rugby Union 2017 Generic rugby image

(AAP Image/Ross Setford)

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Next it was two Spanish players, Mathieu Belie and Bastien Fuster, who had played for France B and then there was retaliation as the Belgian prop, Victor Paquet, who had played for France U19 was named. Rugby Europe will have to look into all these queries.

To make matters worse, Russia’s no 8, Anton Rudoy played many times for Kazakhstan and may come under scrutiny. If all of these are found to be ineligible then, Romania, Spain, Russia and Belgium would be disqualified which means Germany would go directly to the Rugby World Cup finals and Portugal would contest the repecharges. I don’t think it will come to this.

There is already two precedents for disqualification. For the Rugby World Cup 2003, Russia was disqualified for fielding three South African nationals in the preliminary rounds. This year, Tahiti travelled to Raratonga to play Cook Islands in the Oceania Rugby World Cup qualifier and beat the locals, 13-9.

It was found that Tahiti fielded two players, Guillaume Brouqui and Andoni Jimenez, who were born in France and did not have Tahitian-born parents or grandparents nor lived there for 36 months as required. The result was then overturned and Cook Islands will play the next round, against Asia 1, in June and July.

All eyes are now turned to Rugby Europe to see how these dilemmas are handled and how much World Rugby will have an input in the proceedings and the end rulings.

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