Spaniards cry foul over Romanian ref

– Fuming Spanish rugby officials are to make an official complaint over the performance of Romanian referee Vlad Iordachescu in the 18-10 defeat to Belgium on Sunday which saw Romania qualify for the World Cup at Spain’s expense.

Victory would have secured Spain second place behind Georgia in the Rugby Europe Championship standings and a ticket to next year’s World Cup in Japan.

The shock defeat left Romania

Brussels

to progress and the Spanish now face an arduous series of play-off games if they are to get through to the game’s showpiece tournament for the first time since 1999.

Spain were overwhelming favourites to beat Belgium but rarely got going on a mud-caked pitch in Brussels and ugly confrontations broke out at the final whistle as members of the coaching staff tried to restrain their players.

Referee Iordachescu was pursued by furious Spanish players and several irate supporters and needed to be escorted off the pitch by competition officials.

Spain’s rugby federation said it had warned the referee commission of governing body Rugby Europe about appointing Iordachescu to the game.

“Romania needed Spain to lose in order to go to the World Cup, so evidently a Romanian referee was not ideal for this game,” said a statement on the organisation’s website. – Reuters