Spain gear up for biggest day in their history against Belgium
ARGUABLY the biggest day in Spanish Rugby history will be played out at Le Petit Heysel-in Brussels today with Los Leones needing a win by any score over Belgium to book their place at RWC2019.
Spain are strong favourites but Belgium – at full tilt and full strength – are good enough to contest the issue and be awkward opponents at their small intimate stadium which is situated in the shadow of Belgium’s famous national football Stadium.
Today could be very different from Spain’s seemingly relaxed and joyous qualification campaign thus far in which a group of talented but inexperienced players have simply been giving it a lash. Today could change their lives and don’t be surprised if the nerves kick in a little.
That’s why I insist this is Spanish Rugby’s biggest ever day, despite them qualifying for the 1999 World Cup. Back then they also had some very talented players – Alberto Malo and Oriol Ripol come to mind – but with 24 of that 30-strong squad based in Spain they were an amateur side with careers temporarily put on hold and annual leave used to compete in their pool matches.
RWC2019 would be different. The stakes are high. Spain’s squad is packed with full time professionals, mainly from ProD2 but with a sprinkling of T14 players while many other talented Spanish-qualified players in France are keeping a keen eye on proceedings. Win today it could be take off for Spain. And if not now when?
The profile of the game is already rocketing. Their last two home games in Madrid have attracted capacity 15,000 crowds and been promoted with live TV coverage. Their impressive win over Germany also made the front page of the usually football and basketball dominated Marca.
King Felipe V1 – who looks like he would have made a decent line-out forward back in the day – was the guest of honour and seemed to enjoy a great day out, so much so that he gave his security men nightmares by rushing down to the pitch to congratulate the players and joined the singsong and victory chants. Spain’s prop Jonathan Garcia even pulled his sweaty jersey off and presented it to his king, possibly hoping for a royal overcoat in return. And all this before they have actually qualified.
If Spain can book their ticket, World Rugby will double their funding in the coming 18 months and world class specialist skills coaches will be paid for and made available. They will also quickly arrange some more testing games for Spain, possibly inheriting some of the autumn fixtures of those sides involved in the World Cup repechage which will include two out of Samoa, Romania and Canada.
There would likey also be more sponsorship coming in and its timely that this May will also see Bilbao host the two European Cup finals. What a vehicle to promote the game in Spain.
All this awaits instantly if they can get the job done today. Defeat wouldn’t be a disaster, they could still qualify via a European playoff against Portugal and a cross regional play-off against Samoa. And even if they lost the latter there would be the repechage tournament in November.
That, however, would mean a nine month delay in development time. In the land of manana, today is suddenly all important for Spain.