Portugal must know this Thursday if it plays repechage for the World Cup | rugby
It is an unusual situation, being a professional federation of a country like Spain, but, for the second consecutive Rugby World Cup, Spain could be excluded from the competition due to the irregular use of players. World Rugby, the entity responsible for the sport at world level, should be announced this Thursday and, if Spain’s exclusion is confirmed, Romania will be qualified directly for France 2023, but Portugal will also benefit: the “wolves ” would rise to third place in the European qualification, a position that would give access to a repechage.
Years of World Rugs by World Rug. Three years sanction, Romania, Belgium, for the use of two non-selected countries, selection that favored Russia, after four countries, selection that favored the direct play-off in the country (qualification for the 2020 world classification) for France 2023 may have a turn around at the secretariat and, once again, Spain can see its sporting performances penalized by bureaucratic errors.
Second classified in the European qualifiers, with a point advantage over Romania and three over Portugal, the Spaniards use Gavin van der Berg, a player born in South Africa who came to represent Agronomia, in two qualifying matches, but the use of the first- line in a breach of World Rugby’s eligibility rules, according to which a player can represent a country other than the one in which he was born by family descent by having resided for three uninterrupted years – or 10 years alternately.
Van der Berg, arrived in Spain in 2018 and made his debut for the Spanish national team in December 2021, but his stay in Spain took place between May and September 2019 when, allegedly, he returned to South Africa at the end of the championship.
The possibility of using an error exists, since it does not consider the fault to Alcoben club of the player’s club, which will have to assume the false identity when registering the athlete in Spanish.
If World Rugby confirms Spain’s breach of eligibility law, show ten points deducted from “XV del León” – wins in both games with the Netherlands –, which would place Portugal in the third position of the European qualification, a place that will guarantee the repechage, in which, in the last, four countries go through November for the competition.