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Belgium downed Spain today in a RWC Qualifier amid controversy. The 18-10 win by Belgium saw Spain missing out on the coveted Europe 1 spot with Romania instead qualifying for RWC 2019. Spain can still qualify though need to overcome Portugal before facing the might of Samoa in a Play-Off.
Against Belgium today Spain failed to perform at the same level which saw Los Leones downing Romania, Russia and Germany recently. Their performance, though, was not helped by the officials says Head Coach Santiago Santos.
“We weren’t allowed to play, the referee kept stopping the game at every moment. The difference between penalties against us and for us was huge. When we were trying to come back in the game the play kept on being interrupted.”
Officiating the match was Vlad Iordachescu, a Romanian. The two assistant referees were also Romanians. Such a situation should never have been allowed to happen. Indeed Spain requested, last month, that the officials be reappointed.
The request was made on February 19, the day after Spain defeated Romania. The request was made to Rugby Europe Referee Commissioner Patrick Roben to change the officials so as to avoid having referees involved from a country directly impacted by the result of the game.
No changes were made which meant Iordachescu and his two countrymen were retained for the match. Following the outcome of the match under-fire World Rugby officials went to twitter to clarify that Rugby Europe rather than World Rugby made the appointments.
While this was unfolding videos, such as the following one, began circulating which brought into question the performance of the officials.
Belgium’s win came through penalties. Fly Half Vincent Hart would land six in the match, to score all of his team’s points. He would have Belgium leading 12-0 at half time.
The overall penalty count for the game has been debated. The final total appears to be 25 against Spain compared to 4 against Belgium.
The Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) made a statement confirming that they will present a complaint to Rugby Europe and World Rugby to review the video from the match to determine whether or not the actions of Iordachescu deliberately favored the interests of Romania.
