Rugby Europe Championship 2018

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Spainish twitter account
OFFICIAL COMUNICATE On February 19, one day after the #XVdelLeon won to Romania, Rugby Europe was asked to change the referees of the last day to be Romanians, but the request was rejected after taking designated time.
Also European rugby rejected Spains request to have a TMO.

Anyone have a stream of the game can't find it anywhere ATM not even on the main website.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Why was this game assigned by rugby Europe and not world rugby. Freaking Nigel did a qualifier between two Caribbean teams that had no chance yet this is game is done by someone with no tier one experience.

He'll even the ARC gets World Rugby appointments for the center ref and that means nothing.

Every game that has World Cup consequences should be done by either an international panel or someone on the fringes.
If rugby is serious about developing the game world wide and having the World Cup be more than a tier 1 showcase they need the best refs at those games.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Spainish twitter account
OFFICIAL COMUNICATE On February 19, one day after the #XVdelLeon won to Romania, Rugby Europe was asked to change the referees of the last day to be Romanians, but the request was rejected after taking designated time.
Also European rugby rejected Spains request to have a TMO.

Anyone have a stream of the game can't find it anywhere ATM not even on the main website.

It's the only game of the three played today in the REC to not have the replay available in the RugbyEurope website. Way to quell the conspiracy theorists.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

To be honest, i am kinda used to stuff like this (Jaguares have RSA refs against RSA teams, NZ refs against NZ teams, etc.) but it is indeed ridiculous.

Still, what Spain did after the final whistle is a big nono. I expect severe consequences.

Having said that, if WR wants the sport to grow, this is not how to do it.

 

[Ainsthrilln]

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/rugb ... s/4527522/

There you have it with Spanish comments.

Spain played really bad, but you should watch it.

I lost all hope of getting rugby as something more than a marginal sport in Spain. There was so much hope and media attention, and after today any Spanish newcomer will see it as some kind of WWE, with violence and arranged results...

And we will be lucky if we do not get disqualified or half the team sanctioned...

 

[Brigantine]

Now, repecheage tournament. That could be epic!

The Portugal Play-Off to go first...
and then Samoa H&A in June, but it's ok to lose that one.

This is a real upset, almost on the level of Germany vs Romania.
Such a shame the ref is suspect - but was there anything as bad as the ref not seeing a Russian try?

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

Pichot just tweeted about this. After being asked to explain what happened, he wrote:

"Eduardo (guy he's replying to), just landed in BsAs and i've got 200 messages about this. I'll watch the game and of course there will be an explanation (about what happened)"

Italics are mine.
Thing is, although i understand you are literally destroying someone's dreams, you cannot behave like that. Refuse to play if you must, but do not go for the ref after the game. Easier said than done, granted.
The problem is that by doing so you are giving away the moral high ground and that is irreversible and will be punished severely. I'd like to know who is responsible for appointing a Romanian ref to such a game and punish him/her/them severely too.
This was a game that decided (potentially) who goes into the WC and who doesn't and it had no TMO ffs.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

It does seem a player gave the ref a solid push at around 35secs.



People are having a go at Rugby Europe but I mean, they actually awarded the trophy to the correct team this year, which is a step in the right direction.

Georgia defeat Romania 25-16 to regain the trophy.

I quite fancy Portugal against Spain on the evidence of the mental capitulation by Spain today before and after the final whistle. Yes, there was a skewed penalty count but independent viewers believe Spain simply choked, pure and simple.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Pichot just tweeted about this. After being asked to explain what happened, he wrote:

"Eduardo (guy he's replying to), just landed in BsAs and i've got 200 messages about this. I'll watch the game and of course there will be an explanation (about what happened)"

Italics are mine.
Thing is, although i understand you are literally destroying someone's dreams, you cannot behave like that. Refuse to play if you must, but do not go for the ref after the game. Easier said than done, granted.
The problem is that by doing so you are giving away the moral high ground and that is irreversible and will be punished severely. I'd like to know who is responsible for appointing a Romanian ref to such a game and punish him/her/them severely too.
This was a game that decided (potentially) who goes into the WC and who doesn't and it had no TMO ffs.

Rugby Europe are responible for the ref appointments the president is Romanian......... I mean I want to be an honest case of just a regular bad calls by the ref (If he was bad), but everything just looks bad now.

A big blow for the sport, shame what with europe finals in spain this year. Would have been a great build up

 

[amz]

Pichot just tweeted about this. After being asked to explain what happened, he wrote:

"Eduardo (guy he's replying to), just landed in BsAs and i've got 200 messages about this. I'll watch the game and of course there will be an explanation (about what happened)"

Italics are mine.
Thing is, although i understand you are literally destroying someone's dreams, you cannot behave like that. Refuse to play if you must, but do not go for the ref after the game. Easier said than done, granted.
The problem is that by doing so you are giving away the moral high ground and that is irreversible and will be punished severely. I'd like to know who is responsible for appointing a Romanian ref to such a game and punish him/her/them severely too.
This was a game that decided (potentially) who goes into the WC and who doesn't and it had no TMO ffs.

The game you won in Russia didn't have a TMO either. REC have no TMOs which I agree is crap but you were in this position by a big ref mistake in Russia and a very friendly ref from Bayonne in your game vs Romania so I think you should stop complaining, I didn't heard this when Russia lost due to clear ref mistake.

Can someone actually point which were ref's mistakes and if the respective mistakes influenced the final score? You missed like 9 points if I counted correctly from kicking tee.

 

[Brigantine]

Take a step back and realize that this RWC qualification was decided, not by the results between Georgia, Romania, Spain and Russia, but by what Germany and Belgium do when they have home advantage and turn up!

The very first game, and now the very last game.

Also 19 May: Germany vs Portugal for promotion/relegation. (assuming Portugal gets at least a losing bonus point vs Poland. One week after the Continental Shield finals)

 

[Da Grappla]

The Portugal Play-Off to go first...
and then Samoa H&A in June, but it's ok to lose that one.

This is a real upset, almost on the level of Germany vs Romania.
Such a shame the ref is suspect - but was there anything as bad as the ref not seeing a Russian try?

Samoa is definitely off-limits. If everything goes as expected, Canada should be our rival. We lost to them last November after a promising start.

On the other hand

- It could be epic as I just said
- Could you have a better preparation for a RWC than matches with actual meaning besides testing players, tactics, etc? I say no!
- We could focus on the mistakes made and correct them, because they were mistakes, no lack of skills or something out of our reach



Yes I am one of those half-full glass guys

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

someone posted this

i only saw like three actual bad calls, most of the breakdown penalties didn't show the entire tacke/ruck process so it's hard to judge them.

1. Obstruction call was real bad and the yellow given afterwards was bad. Like the ref wanted to **** off the Spaniards.

2. Accidental offside on lineout. Ball was always in the hands of the guy in front of the planned maul so no one was offside.

3. Should have been yellow for that intentional knock.

 

[Da Grappla]

The game you won in Russia didn't have a TMO either. REC have no TMOs which I agree is crap but you were in this position by a big ref mistake in Russia and a very friendly ref from Bayonne in your game vs Romania so I think you should stop complaining, I didn't heard this when Russia lost due to clear ref mistake.

Can someone actually point which were ref's mistakes and if the respective mistakes influenced the final score? You missed like 9 points if I counted correctly from kicking tee.

Cruz del Sur is Argentine, not Spanish

He's just posting his take on the issue

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I understand other games dont have TMO too, and that other games which Spain won didnt have TMO either. I also understand that Rugby Europe are responsible.

I refuse to believe however, that WR has nothing to do with all of this and has it hands tied to fix it.

Facts, not opinions:

- A game which for every practical reason decided who goes and who doesn't to the world cup was refereed without a TMO
- The very same game was officiated by a ref who's nationality screams conflict of interest
- As mentioned in this thread Nigel Owens refereed one of the first RWC qualifier games between two caribbean nations, none of which had the slightest chance of actually making it to the world cup.

Opinions:

- If this is the resource allocation the organizers have in mind well then, well, these are the consequences. If you decide to fly the world's (arguably and clearly not my opinion) "best" ref to an inconsequential game and then send whoever is free to an important game, there is a chance that can backfire.
- Spain is a relatively greenfield rugby nation with a reasonable potential and (given how small the sport is now there) interesting growth perspective. This might have very well killed the growth of the sport. Team won't be going to the world cup and chances are it will be sanctioned severely while the people responsible for the officiating will suffer little to no consequences. New and potential fans run away from things like these.

For the record, i am not angry at Romanians, Romanian Rugby or even the ref. I am angry at whoever organized this. And no, accountability shouldn't stop with Rugby Europe. Again, i dont believe for a second there was nothing WR could have done to prevent this.

 

[beerholder]

Well a lot of things have been thrown at the ref and I agree, there is an obvious conflict of interests, but looking at the match he looked like did his job as neutral as you can get. Seeing the match, I'm shocked at how different Spain played here and against Romania. They simply couldn't control the breakdown and their scrums were terrible... I think that all the points scored by Belgium were ruck infringements.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I'd imagine there is a chance Owens jumped at the chance of a wee trip to the Caribbean rather than being directly instucted to go there given the "importance" of the match Cruz, but yes, fair points.

I don't think this is any reflection on the referee, the Romanian Union or even the Rugby Europe President (at least not in terms of his nationality). It is more the general ineffectiveness of Rugby Europe and a lack of apparent interest and/or oversight (or general impotence) by World Rugby in the REC in particular and Tier2 in general (other than some of their pet projects).

If I was going to do a conspiracy I'd have appointed a Romanian referee in the Spanish games against Germany or Russia which on paper at the outset were far more likely to result in Spanish losses.

The Romanian union appears to invest more in suitably qualified referees than possibly any other Tier2 nation outside of Japan, so we can hardly criticise them for making referees available.

In summary, bleep happens, penalise any Spanish players who offended and learn from this scenario in the future.

 

[beerholder]

I honestly believe (and hopefully to no offense to anybody), Spain would have lost even if they had a Spanish referee

 

[Ainsthrilln]

I'd imagine there is a chance Owens jumped at the chance of a wee trip to the Caribbean rather than being directly instucted to go there given the "importance" of the match Cruz, but yes, fair points.

I don't think this is any reflection on the referee, the Romanian Union or even the Rugby Europe President (at least not in terms of his nationality). It is more the general ineffectiveness of Rugby Europe and a lack of apparent interest and/or oversight (or general impotence) by World Rugby in the REC in particular and Tier2 in general (other than some of their pet projects).

If I was going to do a conspiracy I'd have appointed a Romanian referee in the Spanish games against Germany or Russia which on paper at the outset were far more likely to result in Spanish losses.

The Romanian union appears to invest more in suitably qualified referees than possibly any other Tier2 nation outside of Japan, so we can hardly criticise them for making referees available.

In summary, bleep happens, penalise any Spanish players who offended and learn from this scenario in the future.

Well, I do not have anything to say about Mitrea's job at the Spain-Germany, but he wasn't born in Italy precisely...

And the problem is not the initial appointment, but that the referee was not changed when Spanish Union asked.

Maybe we would have lost in the same way, but we wouldn't have the players going against the referee nor this discussion.

 

[profitius]

I watched the game as a neutral before commenting because sometimes these things can be exaggerated.


Unfortunately I think we haven't heard the last of this. Some shocking decisions went against the Spanish and the more the game went on the worse he got. Worse still is the Spanish players lost their composure because of it.


I can't understand how moronic world rugby are for allowing this to happen. At this stage in a match this important for both countries a tiny bit of common sense would have prevented this mess.