The player at the heart of Spain's dramatic expulsion from next year's Rugby World Cup was unaware that his club had tampered with travel stamps in his passport to make him appear eligible for selection by the national side, it has been revealed.
Gavin van den Berg, a South Africa-born prop playing for the Madrid-based club Alcobendas, believed that he 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.
However, Van den Berg was out of the country for 127 days during his first year, with his reasons for doing so failing to meet any exceptional circumstances, meaning he had not spent long enough in Spain over the three-year spell to qualify on residency at the time he was selected.
Players are required to spend at least 10 months in each year in their new country, as required under Regulation 8, making him ineligible for selection by Spain at the time he was called up having spent a lengthy period back in South Africa in 2019.
In a shocking twist, World Rugby has now revealed that representatives from the player's club had apparently, without either Spain or the player's knowledge, tampered with travel stamps in the player's passport to make it seem that the player had not been out of Spain for more than two months (62 days) in that first year, to facilitate the player's reclassification as a domestic player to benefit the club, with Van den Berg and the Spanish national side believing everything was above board.