Spain believe they have fresh information that should lead to their national team being reinstated at the men’s Rugby World Cup next year.
World Rugby announced in April that Spain had been excluded from the tournament for fielding an ineligible player in the qualifying stages, but an appeal is due to be heard on Thursday.
The Spanish rugby federation (FER) was also fined £75,000 after it emerged that a reserve front-row forward, Gavin van den Berg, had not fulfilled the necessary three-year residency criteria because in his first year he spent 127 days back in his native South Africa. It was then found that certain date stamps on a photocopy of the player’s passport did not match those on the original document.
As a result Romania were promoted into Pool B for the tournament next year alongside South Africa, Ireland and Scotland. Spain had also been ejected from qualifying for the 2019 tournament in Japan for using ineligible players.
This time, however, the FER is arguing the player and his club were largely to blame, adding that Van den Berg played only a peripheral on-field role. He featured as a substitute for 22 and 34 minutes respectively in his side’s 52-7 and 43-0 wins against the Netherlands, coming on only after Spain were already well ahead.
The appeal will be conducted virtually by an independent panel, with Spanish players desperately hoping for a reprieve. “We know these appeals are difficult to overturn but there is some optimism because of the characteristics of the case,” the squad member Koi Hogg told the Guardian. “It wasn’t a case of a cynical act by the federation. They were basically lied to and we’ve got new information that will shed light on that.
“We also think the penalty was excessive in terms of the role the player actually played on the pitch. The two games were both arguably won before he even came on. You can imagine how the rest of us feel. It would be huge for Spain to be in next year’s World Cup. It would put us on the map.”
