Introducing a new site covering Spanish rugby…check it out & bookmark it!
We here at The Other La Liga aim to show people there’s more to Spanish Sport than simply El Clásico.
A world away from Twickenham, Murrayfield, and Le Stade de France lies the European Nations Cup Division 1A (or, if you like, Six Nations Division 2), which also doubles up as the qualifying rounds for the Rugby World Cup 2015, to be held in England. The top two placed sides will automatically gain a place in La Copa Mundial, and the third placed team goes into a repechage playoff for one last chance at making it.
New Leones coach Bevan Bryce – a Kiwi – took charge in July, and has quickly assembled a new core of Spanish-born players, complimented with a small group of distinctly non-Spanish sounding names who have qualified for selection via residency, playing in the División de Honor (the La Liga of rugby), who he believes are capable of helping Spain reach what would be only their second ever Rugby World Cup; the first and last being in 1999. Bryce will surely be looking to the example of Italy, who through a fine balance of home-grown talent, imports and clever use of their large diaspora (mainly found in Argentina) have gone from six-nations whipping boys to taking full points from World Cup finalists France in two of their last three meetings in the tournament.
Spain currently sit at a record-high 18th in the world: an achievement all the more admirable, given there are only around 30,000 registered players of the sport (very few of whom are professional) in a country that boasts either the World and/or European Champions in the more lucrative games of football, basketball and handball, and has seven of the top 50 tennis players in the world. Even a newly expanded División de Honor only has 12 teams, with the vast majority of players having to do a regular nine-to-five job before training in the evenings. The worsening financial crisis does not help matters in the world of Spanish Rugby either; league champions VRAC Quesos Entrepinares unable to take their place in the Amlin Challenge Cup due to the fact they simply could not afford to embark on a European campaign. The nearest team who could afford to take on such a challenge in their absence was fifth placed Basque outfit Bizkaia Gernika, a side fortunate enough to benefit from regional government funding.
Despite all these setbacks there is a genuine desire to help the game grow, with both domestic and nationals sides improving rapidly, and a genuine chance of World Cup 2015 qualification, who knows, maybe Span could become the “Seventh” Nation.
We hope this has whet your appetite to discover more about the world of rugby in Spain. The blog can be found at http://theotherlaliga.wordpress.com and on Twitter: @TheOtherLaLiga
