World Rugby investigating Belgium vs Spain official controversy as Romanian referee is chased off pitch by players

The Spanish Rugby Federation [FER] will make an official complaint to World Rugby over the performance of Romanian referee Vlad Iordachescu, with Sunday’s Rugby Europe Championship match against Belgium ending in disgraceful scenes as a number of Spain players chased him off the pitch at full-time.

Spain were on the verge of qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup having not qualified for the tournament since 1999, with the side only needing to beat Belgium – ranked 25th in the world – to join Georgia as qualifiers from the second tier of European rugby.

However, they suffered a controversial 18-10 defeat in Brussels that saw Iordachescu penalise them 28 times to Belgium’s eight, and the matter was not helped given that the beneficiaries of Spain’s defeat were Romania, who have now qualified for Japan 2019.

The FER made an official request to Rugby Europe to change the all-Romanian officials on 19 February once it became clear that it would be a straight shootout between the two countries, but it was rejected and Rugby Europa have confirmed that they will not comment on the matter until a full review into Iordachescu’s performance has been completed.

"Romania needed Spain to lose in order to go to the World Cup, evidently, a Romanian referee was not ideal for this game," said a FER statement.

"The federation will present a complaint to Rugby Europe, copying World Rugby, so that the Commission of Referees can review the video of the game and determine if the referee deliberately favoured Romania's interests and, if that is the case, take action."

Emotions boiled over at the full-time whistle as a number of Spanish players attempted to confront Iordachescu over his performance. Spanish blindside flanker Pierre Barthere appears to be the main aggressor towards the official during the unsavoury scenes after the match, with Iordachescu and his assistants having to be protected as they left the field.

The defeat means that Spain miss out on automatic qualification for the World Cup next year, and must negotiate a series of play-offs against Portugal and, if they win, World Cup veterans Samoa in order to qualify.

World Rugby have confirmed that they are looking into the matter, with a statement on Monday confirming: “While World Rugby does not appoint match officials for the Rugby Europe Championship, it is in contact with Rugby Europe to understand the context of events relating to the Belgium v Spain match in Brussels on Sunday, which doubled as an important RWC 2019 qualifier.”

The FER did condemn “some of the players who could not contain their feelings”, with Rugby Europe set to carry out an investigation into the incident. However, the governing body will not yet comment on Iordachescu’s performance.

"Rugby Europe has always operated the highest standards of match official selection whatever the competitions," a statement read.

"As for other international major competitions, referee appointments for the Rugby Europe Championship have been made ahead of the competition by an independent and neutral skilled committee.

"It has been reviewed and confirmed during the tournament based on referees’ performance at international level.

"While we appreciate that this is a subject of high-emotion, it would be inappropriate to comment on match official performance before the usual full review has been undertaken."

But Jaime Nava, the Spain captain, said that he was “shocked” by the appointment of Romanian officials to a game that has direct implications on Romania’s World Cup qualification hopes, and added that he hopes there was not any malice behind Sunday’s fixture.

"I don't want to think that rugby has been prostituted to leave us out,” Nava told Spanish publication Marca. “When we were assigned the Romanian referees, we were shocked, but this is rugby, values are presupposed.”

However, seven matches during the Rugby World Cup in 2015 featured referees from countries that also had teams in the same pool as those involved in the match, with little being made of the potential for controversy.

The incident comes just three days after World Rugby removed South African assistant referee Marius van der Westhuizen from England’ Six Nations encounter with Ireland at the weekend after he took part in refereeing an English training session earlier in the week at the request of head coach Eddie Jones.

The governing body confirmed that Jones had followed all the required protocols in requesting an official from them, but that World Rugby had made a mistake in sending an official that was playing a part in an upcoming match even though it was within the rules. As a result, Van der Westhuizen was replaced by Nigel Owens, and the regulations amended to include assistant referees as being prevented from taking charge of training sessions when they are involved in a match with that tam during the same Test window.