cormac wrote: ↑March 13th, 2022, 1:48 pm
Spain have qualified for the RWC as Europe 2 and will be in our group.
The review reportedly concerns South Africa-born front-rower Gavin van der Berg. He made his debut on December 19 as Spain beat the Netherlands 52-7 in Amsterdam in the Rugby Europe Championship, which also doubled as World Cup qualifying.
Van der Berg was a second-half replacement and scored a try.
He was a second-half replacement again on February 7 when the Netherlands was beaten 43-0 in Madrid.
Van der Berg arrived in Spain in 2018, and had to live there for three years to qualify for Spain on residency before his debut on December 19. But he reportedly returned to South Africa for four months in 2019, and went back there again during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
If Spain is found guilty of breaching Regulation 8, it could lose at least the 10 competition points it won against the Netherlands.
That would drop it from second to fourth in European qualifying and out of the Rugby World Cup. Romania, instead, could rise to second and automatic qualification, and Portugal could finish third and advance to the world repechage tournament in November.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/int ... app-iPhone