Div vs Span on /bin/wcm/references servlet execution

/bin/wcm/references is the servlet that tells you whether certain page is used in other pages.

Recently, have been looking into a bug where the servlet returned an empty results set.

Further investigation has found that whenever path is contained within the <strong or <span the wcm servlet does not see path as reference.

Example that does not work:

<p><span data-path="/content/myapp/surname_change">P</span></p> 

However, when we have path as a <div it immediately starts working.

Example that does work:

<p><div data-path="/content/myapp/surname_change">P</div></p> 

Is there a way to tell /wcm/references servlet to look for <span html elements as well as <div elements ?

Kindest Regards,

Peter