Canadian men get a better look at who might join them in World Cup repechage
TORONTO — Canada has a little more information on who it might face in a repechage tournament to decide the last Rugby World Cup qualifier.
Belgium’s 18-10 controversial upset win over No. 20 Spain on Sunday meant No. 17 Romania qualifies for the 2019 World Cup in Japan as Europe 1.
Georgia, ranked 12th in the world, topped the Rugby Europe Championship standings with a 5-0-0 record but had already qualified for the World Cup by virtue of its third-place pool finish in the 2015 tournament. That opened the door to Romania, which finished second in the standings.
A win over No. 25 Belgium would have meant automatic qualification for the Spaniards rather than Romania. And there was an ugly ending to the game as angry Spanish players confronted Romanian referee Vlad Iordaschescu, who along with his two Romanian assistant referees had to be escorted from the field by security.