South African-raised Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman has reportedly been used by Spain as evidence of inconsistency in World Rugby’s eligibility regulations as part of their appeal against their exclusion from the 2023 World Cup.
According to the Telegraph, Schoeman as well as New Zealand Irish backs James Lowe and Bundee Aki and the Tongan-born scrumhalf on the verge of playing for the All Blacks, Folau Fakatava, have all been used in Spain’s appeal against their World Cup disqualification.
Spain had booked their place at the World Cup for just the second time in their history, and would have faced the world champion Springboks in Pool B.
However, they were found guilty by an independent judicial committee for breaching player eligibility rules after fielding SA-born prop Gavin van der Berg in one of their qualification matches.
Van den Berg believed he had qualified on residency for Spain after completing a 36-month period in the country, and was capped by Spain against the Netherlands in 2021 and 2022.
It was then discovered he had been out of the country for 127 days during his first year, and the 10 points that Spain earned in the two games he played were removed.
According to the Telegraph, in their appeal against World Rugby’s decision, Spain will focus on Guideline 15 in which the judicial committee stated that international teams “must be able to demonstrate the country in which [a player] has been resident was, genuinely, the country that the Player treated as his home and is clearly the country in which the Player has his primary and permanent home”.
Spain are reportedly irritated by the subjective concept of “home” in the verdict.
During an interview with the Scotsman newspaper earlier this month, Schoeman referred to South Africa as “home” when describing his first year in Scotland.
Spain feel that there is enough ambiguity as to whether the above players felt at home during their residency periods, which could lead to having the decision on their World Cup status reversed.
Photo: @EdinburghRugby
