If Spain defeated Belgium they would proceed to a World Cup playoff match ahead of Romania.

Romanian match officials appointed to the Spain game, seems legit.

I haven't seen any of the footage but surely this was a conflict of interests that could be easily avoided?

[www.telegraph.co.uk]

There's regularly English, Irish, French and Welsh refs used in the 6 nations. Why should the lower competition be different?

The individual ref should perhaps be reprimanded if he did his job poorly, but it's hardly a unique situation.

Sorry guys. I'm spaniard. Follower of London Wasps from the Glory days...LOL, Shawsie, Kinga and company. I saw Danny's ankle injury against Bath many years ago...so great moments...

But yesterday was a disgraceful day for rugby. I know that the spanish rugby isn't very important at the world. In our country rugby is marginal....we played only one time the World Rugby Cup in 1999. It was a dream for Spain Rugby to get it.

For the behaviour of the spanish players there is no forgiveness and they should be punished....but i understand their feelings when a organization Rugby Europe(dependant from WR) with a Romanian president and Romanian officals steal your dream that you are working so hard during 4 years.

The previous request before the game, from Spanish Federation to change the officials was rejected.

Take a look about the entire match

[www.youtube.com]

The highlights of the ref.

[www.youtube.com]

Personally, i request a fair and a transparent investigation by World Rugby. I think that it's the minimal action to take.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 19/03/2018 07:38 by loverugby1979.

Watching the ref highlights, first penalty seemed fine, turnover, not releasing. 2nd one fine, clearly all off feet sealing off the ruck. 3rd with some pretty obvious obstruction. I'm not sure what 1.40 is supposed to be showing. Next one at 1.56 certainly looks like the 9 has come offside. 2.03 not sure what is going on there. 2.20 can't tell if there was a knock on from the footage. No idea what the next sequence is supposed to show. Then we just see a pen advantage, but no footage leading up.

I'm not watching the game, but I'm going to stop with the highlights now. Maybe the ref did have an awful game, but whoever edited that video did no better!

Raggs - as I said the only reason both the 'higher' and 'lower' competitions should be different is that this creates a potential conflict of interests that could easily be avoided.

I am led to believe that the penalty count was hugely imbalanced against the Spanish and that some of the decisions were contentious to say the least. Now this may or may not be true, but the accusation could have been avoided so easily. Now I'd say a world rugby review is inevitable.

I haven't seen the match so I don't know. But I thought it worth sharing on here. Thanks for posting the links loverugby1979, I'll take a look later.

Quote:

Gaz
Raggs - as I said the only reason both the 'higher' and 'lower' competitions should be different is that this creates a potential conflict of interests that could easily be avoided.
I am led to believe that the penalty count was hugely imbalanced against the Spanish and that some of the decisions were contentious to say the least. Now this may or may not be true, but the accusation could have been avoided so easily. Now I'd say a world rugby review is inevitable.

I haven't seen the match so I don't know. But I thought it worth sharing on here. Thanks for posting the links loverugby1979, I'll take a look later.

There's always going to be a potential conflict of interests. An Irish ref could be claimed to want to help Ireland win the 6N by stopping another side doing well etc.

There's not a bottomless well of referees of sufficient quality, and a number of the comments I've seen suggested that the spanish team, irrespective of the ref, were plain poor.

Yes, there could have been an issue, and yes the referee's performance should be looked into, but I don't think they can simply say they need to use different nations referees.

Sometimes you wonder what World Rugby do other than collect money. Rugby Europe managed by a country (Romania) the team of which depends on another country (Spain) losing a match officiated by a team of officials from that first country. It has a stink about it.

Rather like the Pro 14 TV contracts stink. Pro 14 run from Dublin appoints two Irish Pay per view TV channels thus cutting out terrestrial cover in Wales, Scotland and Ulster.

Just seems like vested interests get away with what they want.

There are plenty of neutral refs who could, and should, have taken a game of such importance and dispelled any accusations of bias. Stupidity by whoever appointed that ref, at the very least.

Quote:

Raggs
Watching the ref highlights, first penalty seemed fine, turnover, not releasing. 2nd one fine, clearly all off feet sealing off the ruck. 3rd with some pretty obvious obstruction. I'm not sure what 1.40 is supposed to be showing. Next one at 1.56 certainly looks like the 9 has come offside. 2.03 not sure what is going on there. 2.20 can't tell if there was a knock on from the footage. No idea what the next sequence is supposed to show. Then we just see a pen advantage, but no footage leading up.
I'm not watching the game, but I'm going to stop with the highlights now. Maybe the ref did have an awful game, but whoever edited that video did no better!

Yeah, the work(highlights) is not very fine.


The worst from officials come at the second half.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 19/03/2018 08:22 by loverugby1979.

Haven’t seen the match, but someone whose opinion I trust says it was the most disgraceful example of blatantly biased refereeing he has seen. As Gaz said, could have been avoided. Why not fly the guy who was due to run the line at Twickenham, but had to pull out, over to officiate this one?

World Rugby are investigating...watch this space!

Quote:

EssexWasp
There are plenty of neutral refs who could, and should, have taken a game of such importance and dispelled any accusations of bias. Stupidity by whoever appointed that ref, at the very least.

My understanding was that the appointment was made by the president of Rugby Europe, himself a Romanian.

This does not look good. Stakes could hardly have been higher. Straight qualification against a potential playoff against Samoa where the European team would be very likely to be eliminated. In such circumstances a referee that could not be seen to have any interest in the outcome at all should 100% have been appointed. All very well saying an Irish ref could be claimed to want to help Ireland win the 6N by stopping another side doing well, but I guarantee if the outcome of a game in the final round of the 6N had a direct bearing on another particular country's own chances of winning the championship, then for avoidance of conflicted interests a ref from that country would not be appointed.

Thanks lr1979 for offering a Spanish angle on this and for acknowledging that the players' reaction was inexcusable. Emotions would have been running very high though when they had their dream in their grasp and then saw it snatched away controversially.

I don't know about any contentious decisions but it really isn't hard to avoid any allegations or bias in terms of nationality. Appoint a neutral creditable ref for a qualifying game. No ifs or buts.

This is supposed to be a professional era....and I understand Spain may not be at that stage as yet but the importance of the game should demand that a completely transparent and impartial approach is adhered to.
That would have hopefully stopped this in its tracks.
Pleased a review may be on the cards and hopefully a full report comes out with any lessons learnt etc etc..

Just hope no impropriety is discovered..

Just watched the referees high?lights

The timing of a lot of the calls is very suspicious- often penalties being given after clean breaks or after a Spain player has appeared to turn over correctly.

Think the pulling back of advantage when the Spanish player is clean through says it all though- they then miss a long penalty (0 points instead of 7)

Even if the Spanish did infringe 28 times (I would argue that number alone says everything about the refereeing performance) having a Romanian referee for a game that directly impacts Romania’s inclusion in a major tournament makes the whole result tainted and could have been avoided very easily (Ian Tempest was official for the Germany v Russia game which was a dead rubber and could’ve very easily swapped with the Romanian)

According to Radio5 World Rugby are investigating - not that it'll change the outcome...

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Roger

It's a tough situation. On the face of it I don't think, or at least I'd like to not think, any ref goes in to a match with a bias to one team or another (though I agree this looks highly dubious). But subconciously can we guarantee that a ref won't have an preference if the outcome of the match has a bearing on the refs own national team or if one of the teams playing has recently had a result vs the refs national team?

For example Nigel Owens reffing England two weeks after they controversially beat Wales, not saying in any way shape or form that it affected his performance, but it could be seen as a conflict of interests. The question is where do you draw the line with regards to what affects which match?

You have to trust the ref's impartiality or the game is over.

Quote:

Bzzzzz
You have to trust the ref's impartiality or the game is over.

Absolutely agree. But by saying a Romanian ref shouldn't have reff'd this match "one" instantly puts the ref's impartiality in doubt.

Admittedly in this instance it looks very bad and the ref's impartiality is rightly in question, but if we question it before the match then where do we end up?

Spain asked for a change of officials when they were announced a week ago. The head of the body in charge of appointing the officials refused - another Romanian! It gets worse!

A referee (non professional) critiques the Romanian referee's performance.

[www.youtube.com]