Unfortunately the spiralling Spanish debacle is no joke
TODAY is April 1 but this ongoing World Cup crisis – I’ve officially upgraded it from a drama – concerning Romania, Spain, Belgium, and possibly now even Russia, is unfortunately not a wind up. It’s happening right now in real time even if the CEO of World Rugby Brett Gosper has been tweeting mainly about cricket’s latest rumpus this week.
To recap: two weeks ago Belgium beat Spain 18-10 in a game to decide whether Spain or Romania progressed directly to RWC2019 and playd in the opening game against Japan.
Inexplicably a Romanian referee Vlad Iordăchescu and two Romanian assistant refs – the former an employee of the Romanian Union – were appointed despite appeals by Spain a month ahead of the game. Nor was Spain’s request for a TMO granted by Rugby Europe who are headed up by Octavian Morariu, the former president of the Romanian Rugby Federation.
Iordachescu had a shocker and Spain were clearly spooked by his presence. The penalty count was 19-7 against Spain and there were some very questionable forward passes and advantage calls that went against them. Ultimately they are subjective calls and it should be added that Belgium played very well.
After the game Spain quickly cried foul and many respected figures, including Sir Clive Woodward, stated that it was totally unacceptable for the staging of the game to be tainted, even if merely by perception, by an interested party being so intimately involved. And, of course, they are absolutely right.
Back in England that very same week wasn’t assistant refis eree Marius van der Westhuizen replaced at just a couple of hours notice by World Rugby when there was a perceived conflict of interests before the Ireland game at Twickenham?
Investigations began with World Rugby initially suggesting it was a Rugby Europe matter although their own fingerprints were also all over the game. And if you kick the hornets nest people are going to get stung.
Romania’s star centre Sione Faka’osilea, it transpires, played Sevens for Tonga in 2013, a fact he helpfully penned in a short first-person biography on the Baia Mare club website ahead of the 2013-14 season.
Fine, except the Tonga 7s team is Tonga’s capture side and once you play for them you can’t play for another country again unless you take what has become known as the Olympic loophole route. Which Faka’osilea didn’t.
Did Romania get written permission to play Faka’osilea from World Rugby and Rugby Europe as some have suggested? Possibly, we will find out, but the regulations say unambiguously that it the responsibility of the Union to field eligible players. Ask little Tahiti who got kicked out of the World Cup last week for the same offence.
Moving on it seems virtually certain that Belgium have fielded two ineligible players this season – Victor Paquet and Oliver Claxton – and indeed their ineligibility was spotted by Spain who alerted the match commissioner when their names appeared in the team’s lists before their match with Belgium. Both players were discreetly withdrawn.
But Spain themselves are not entirely out of the woods. One of their star players Matthieu Bélie, is a former France U20 international from 2008 and flanker Thibault Visensang, normally a bench player, won eight caps for France U20 in 2011. Both are also qualified for Spain through parents or grandparents but were they ever ‘captured’ by France?
This is hideously complicated because France seem to change their nominated capture team between the U20s and France A every year so players and everchanging coaches – who were meant to advise players on these decisions under World Rugby protocols – had no constant to work off.
World Rugby also belatedly ruled in 2014 that U20 is by definition junior rugby and that ‘capture’ teams should always be Senior 15s – the likes of England Saxons, Emerging or Junior Springboks – or in special cases a nation’s senior Sevens side.
So does that apply retrospectively as well? Morally, it must. No 18-19 year old, perhaps living and playing in another country, should be forced to make such a binding decision so young. Now or historically. This is why Ross Moriarty was able to win a Junior World Cup with England before becoming a Wales senior cap.
But legally? That’s possibly another matter.
My understanding is that Visenang is in the clear anyway because none of the teams he played against were capture teams for the opposition, another complication to this totally unsatisfactory regulation, and Bélie has also been given the thumbs up.
But still we wait, it could all change by mid-week. What is clear is that eligibility is now considered the key issue and Romania are in serious trouble and facing probable expulsion which could yet see Spain upgraded to automatic qualifiers with Russia promoted to the World Cup play-offs.
Spain, though, had better brace themselves for a couple of very long bans to key players for their post-match harrasment of the referee in Belgium.
Whatever the outcome it’s left a very bad smell hanging in the air but that’s invariably what happens when you finally start cleaning the stables out.