Rugby Europe delay decision on refereeing controversy

Victory for Spain last week would have given them an automatic place in the World Cup in Japan next year, but Belgium won 18-10 in Brussels to send Romania through instead.

At the final whistle referee Vlad Iordachescu was surrounded by outraged Spanish players. 

The Spanish rugby federation, who had requested before the match that the trio of Romanian officials be switched, have now asked the match be replayed because of 19 decisions they believe were unfair to their team.

But the Spanish federation said that Rugby Europe, whose President Octavian Morariu is also Romanian, had rescheduled a teleconference meeting of its board slated for Thursday to next week, without specifying the new date or time of the meeting.

Rugby Europe justified its third postponement in a week of the meeting by stressing the need to gather more information before taking a decision, the federation said.

Agence France-Presse