Spain will not feature at next year’s World Cup in France after their appeal against disqualification for fielding an ineligible player during qualifying was rejected, World Rugby announced on Monday.

After examining new evidence brought by the Spanish federation, an independent appeal committee “dismissed the appeal”, World Rugby said in a statement.

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“In accordance with World Rugby rules, the decision of the independent appeal committee is final and cannot be appealed again,” it added.

The ruling confirmed that Romania will take Spain’s place at next year’s tournament while Portugal – the team Spain beat to seal their place at France 2023 – have taken the spot vacated by Romania in the final qualification event taking place in November.

The Boks and Romania have faced each other only once before – at the RWC in South Africa in 1995. The match, the Boks’ second of the tournament, was played at Newlands in Cape Town where a much-changed Springbok side won 21-8, with Adriaan Richter, who captained the Boks for this match, scoring both their tries. Gavin Johnson added a conversion and three penalty goals.

South African-born prop Gavin van den Berg, who has been playing in Spain since 2018, featured in two qualifiers against the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021 but was deemed not to have served the three years of residency needed to become eligible under World Rugby rules.

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It is the second time that Spain have missed out on World Cup qualification on these grounds.

In 2018, along with Romania and Belgium, they were were sanctioned for fielding ineligible players, paving the way for Russia to qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Photo: Gonzalo Arroyo – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images