Loose Pass: World Cup qualification saga

Editor

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with World Cup qualification and the questions the whole sorry saga has raised…

Last August, Tahiti beat the Cook Islands 13-9 in Rarotonga. Hardly a result that would raise eyebrows around the world but it did put a potentially fatal dent in the Cook Islands’ World Cup qualifying hopes.

What did raise a couple of eyebrows on the day was Tahiti’s fielding of two French-born backs, scrum-half Guillaume Brouqui, who scored a try, and fly-half Andoni Jimenez, who kicked a penalty. The Cook Islands’ administrative team took a couple of quick looks at the teamsheet and then filed a complaint. It took months, but World Rugby investigator Tim Gresson found, in his judicial officer’s report, neither player had a parent or grand parent born in Tahiti. He was also “completely satisfied” that the two players had not lived in Tahiti consecutively for 36 months. Tahiti’s win was overturned.

That judgement came in a difficult week for World Rugby, following the farcical finish to the European World Cup qualifying round which saw a Romanian referee tasked with blowing a Spain-Belgium game in which if Spain lost (much against form) Romania would qualify for the World Cup. Spain duly did lose, victims of an extraordinary penalty count against them, and Romania were through.

The Spanish (well some of them, more on that in a moment) players did not take kindly to this, surrounding and intimidating the referee to the extent that five of the players were given 121 weeks off rugby between them for their attacks.

But, initially, World Rugby did want the Belgium-Spain game replayed. And then things started going really wrong.

Belgium hooker Victor Pacquet, born and raised in France and playing for Charente in France’s Pro D2, has Belgian ancestry but it is too distant to render him eligible. So Belgium may be disqualified from the World Cup qualifying. Spain’s teams generally featured a staggering number of French names, but the most interesting ones were those of Mathieu Belie and Bastien Fuster, both former France U20 representatives at a time when France had no designated ‘next senior’ side and thus possibly ineligible. So Spain may be disqualified from World Cup qualifying.

And there’s Romania. That most Romanian-sounding of centres, Sione Faka’osilea, once represented his homeland of Tonga at Sevens, rendering him ineligible. So Romania may be disqualified from World Cup qualifying – and looming over them as well is the very real threat (according to L’Equipe) that several of Rugby Europe’s officials will be relieved of their duties over their handling of the match official appointments for the Spain-Belgium game, including Rugby Europe’s Romanian President Octavian Morariu.

Assume those three are disqualified, it would leave Russia through and set to face Japan in the tournament opener, while Germany and Portugal would be left scrapping it out for the repechage spot.

While Russia – also once disqualified in the past for including a sprinkling of South Africans in their ranks – and Portugal have been assiduous in their fielding of Russian or Portuguese-sounding names in teams, Germany’s initial thrust towards qualification was on the back of any number of South African or English names. A number of players were brought over with ancestry researched, a number more simply lived there for three years and were largely paid for by Dr. Hans-Peter Wild, the man behind Capri-Sonne. When Dr. Wild fell out with the federation, those players were withdrawn from availability. Germany promptly had to pick actual local players from Germany and suffered some heavy pastings.

None of this is good for the game, and none of the unions guilty of full breaches of the regulations should be given any measure of tolerance. Off with their heads. But as Germany – in part – shows, you can not be in a breach of the regulations and still be in breach of the spirit of them – very much to the detriment of grass roots development in the country involved.

The eligibility rules will change from the start of 2021 onwards (still three years away?), whereafter you will have had to live in a country non-stop for five years instead of three, or to have lived there for an accumulated ten years throughout one’s lifetime. These changes cannot come soon enough. As Agustin Pichot said at the announcement of the changes: “National team representation is the reward for devoting your career, your rugby life, to your nation and these amendments will ensure that the international arena is full of players devoted to their nation, who got there on merit.” You have to hope so. There are a lot of players in a lot of smaller countries who work hard to get into the team of their birthplace and who then find it crushing to see an import take their place. The end to, or the increased stringency in, eligibility rules cannot come soon enough.

But in the meantime, questions have to be asked of the processes that allowed so many ineligible players to take the field, as well as the sanctions that should be applied. And questions still need to be asked about the reach of World Rugby’s influence into tournaments for which they are responsible.

Rugby has come a long way since it turned professional and World Rugby has too. But the money flowing into the game even at Tier three level is starting to increase, meaning the short-cutting practices are starting to increase too, and these have to be combatted.

As International Rugby Players’ CEO Omar Hassanein said: “We support World Rugby’s efforts to eradicate any perceived manipulation of fair play. But this investigation highlights the need to closely monitor the activity of regional associations, particularly around Rugby World Cup qualification matches.”

“Players, especially at tier-two level, sacrifice a lot to follow their Rugby World Cup dream and, if integrity is undermined, it will erode the trust which exists between players, administrators and fans of our sport. The players in this situation deserve better than this. Competitions at all levels of the professional game need to be administered with the same high standards to preserve the integrity and values of our sport.”

Over to you, World Rugby.

Loose Pass compiled by former Planet Rugby Editor Danny Stephens