The traumatic reunion of the “betrayed” Spanish rugby team

Gavin van den Berg was eliminated from the group. A while after the Spanish rugby team learned that it was losing its place in the World Cup due to fraud in the documentation of this pillar, the striker was excluded from the players’ chat. Between laments, rage and disbelief, the noisy silence of the protagonist called our attention. That episode has still marked the reunion, this week, of the XV of the Lion . More than a concentration, he has shared an oval balloon therapy.

The general feeling is expressed in one word, “fucked”, and many gestures. A nod, the hands that simulate a roller coaster, the seriousness of all. Still, they admit, better to be together. “We want to meet again, this important game lifts our spirits a bit,” he sums up Jon Zabalaacting as a spokesperson.

The selection of Santiago Santos has gathered to the clash this Saturday (8:45 p.m., Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid) before some 40,000 spectators against the Classic All Blacks, a group formed by Conrad Smith, Chris Masoe, Stephen Donald and other former members of the prestigious New Zealand team. But he also lives days of meetings and calls. Because the Spanish players play another game in parallel in the offices. They participate with their own lawyers in the appeal against the sanction of the International Federation for the improper alignment of Van den Berg. The real ones punished, as they express it, have been them. If the appeal does not prosper, this week may have meant the dismissal of part of the group.

Nobody directly accuses his former partner of having conceived or executed the manipulation of the photocopy of the passport. There is no doubt that he benefited from it, because he made his alignment with Spain possible. Some allege legal reasons for not pronouncing his name. But one of the most serious faults in any locker room floats above the striker: disloyalty. Not an apology, not a justification, not even a vindication of his innocence. “We don’t know anything about him, he doesn’t show signs of life, he doesn’t answer calls,” says Jon Zabala. Nor has he responded to attempts to contact El Mundo.

Between the heat and the pain

In terms of communication, Gavin van den Berg embodies a great elephant in the small room of Spanish rugby. He doesn’t speak but he’s still there, at the center of so many hushed conversations about deception and negligence. As collateral victims, those who shared a shirt with him. “Disappointed, betrayed, angry” at their attitude, says Zabala.

These days they have felt more accompanied. For the kids from the Industrial Engineers quarry, who made them a corridor when they arrived at their first training session. For the warm words of the leaders of the Madrid City Council. For the affection of the fans who ask for photos. For the ovation that will surely receive them this Saturday at the Wanda.

The games with tennis balls start some laughs at the beginning of the session directed by the physical trainer Mar lvarez in a CSD gym. the speaker of Gavidi puts rhythm to the exercises. There is no joy but professionalism prevails. This is how he transmits it in his behavior Santiago Ovejero. He was a colleague -not a friend- of Van den Berg in Alcobendas and he is particularly affected.

The heeler Ovejero, Argentine by birth, was enjoying his best season: he aspired to win the League and the Cup, he was counting on the coach Santos and with his final rehearsal in Russia he catapulted the Spanish fifteen to the World Cup. He is now detached from the Madrid club, he exercises on his own and looks for a team. Without citing the cursed name, she does express his frustration. “I waited six years to be called up with the national team, I took my vacations here and all the time, the shortcut bothers me.”

Ovejero refers to the fact that the deception -of which the Federation accuses the coaches of Alcobendas Rugby- tried to hide a trip of more than four months to Europe and South Africa in the summer of 2019 that prevented the consideration of Van den Berg as Spanish for purposes sports.

Van den Berg’s long summer

Passport forgery.

The wedding photo in South Africa that condemned the Spanish rugby team

• Writing:
  RICARDO F. COLMENERO
  

The wedding photo in South Africa that condemned the Spanish rugby team

The ruling of the International Federation did not implicate the player in the fraud and his testimony, very negative for Spanish interests, highlighted the precision in recalling the dates of those journeys. However, several members of the XV of the Lion told El Mundo that, when the staff sportsman asked him half a year ago, before the debut, he stated that he meets all the conditions.

One of them angrily cites Gavin van den Berg’s refusal when specifically asked if he had spent more than two months outside of Spain in any summer. “It is impossible that he did not know,” Zabala concludes. The requirement that the stay abroad does not exceed two months per year is usually well known by the players who sign up for the national team in their country of residence.

A sports claim

“We’ve done the job” is the other most verbalized sentiment. “If he had played a lot, we would have been able to understand him.”says the opening Manu Ords about the sanction to the whole group. Van den Berg only played the last stretch of two games, coming off the bench with the score already settled in favor of Spain. In total, some 56 minutes of the 800 that made up the ten qualifying matches for the World Cup.

The resource of the Spanish internationals is attended by some antecedents. The most notable occurred two decades ago, when it was discovered that the English Dave Hilton he had garnered 42 caps for Scotland based on misinformation about his grandfather’s birthplace. In a similar situation were the Welsh Shane Howartt y Brett Sinkinson. Unlike now, the punishments were for the offenders and did not harm their companions.

“We have to believe and fight,” insists Zabala. And if the appeal fails? “The young people will have to continue with this project, the veterans will stay to help”says the captain Fernando Lopez. “We’re pulling, but we’re still standing,” he says lvar Gimenoone of those called to bear that witness in the future.

The Lions they are hurt. Many gave up breaks, vacations, better paid contracts to dedicate more time to the selection. In this years of effort they lost a companion, the ill-fated Kawa Leauma, to whose memory they dedicated the classification. For veterans, France 2023 was going to represent the dream goodbye to the best stage of their sporting life.

This Saturday, against the Classic All Blacks, the local fifteen hopes to offer an attractive show. A few days ago, Santiago Santos asked his men for “quality and intensity” in a non-contact training session. Ten minutes later he had to tell them to “calm down.” When the oval flies, the frustration seems to be released. Under a sun of justice, the team escaped from the wide shadow of that nameless colleague who, knowingly or not, contributed to ruining so much collective work. That with his sole and brief presence on the pitch he has annulled the results of all. That for weeks he owes them, at least, an explanation.