The Spanish rugby 7 team will play its first semifinal of the season

The wins against New Zealand (12-10) and Great Britain (10-0) have classified the Spanish rugby 7 team for its first semi-final of the season in Vancouver (Canada), where the fifth and penultimate tournament of the regular phase of the World Series.

Spain has been second in group A after South Africaagainst which they lost their second match by 7-28, and will face Fiji, leader of the classification, in the semifinal this Sunday at 8:58 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time).

New Zealand was Spain’s first rival at BC Place, in a match that the Oceanians dominated at half-time by 0-10 thanks to attempts by Kitiona Vai, served with a fabulous pass behind the back from Tone Ngshiu after a poorly thrown ‘touche’ by Pol Pla, and Regan Ware.

Pla recovered at the beginning of the second half, when he quickly took a free kick in his own twenty-two zone, advanced 60 meters and found the support of Jaime Manteca, who sent the oval to the opposite end, where Tobías Sainz-Trápaga and Manu Moreno negotiated a textbook two against two culminated by the Sevillian striker.

Moreno himself stole the center kick and Eduardo López made the second Spanish mark, to which Manteca added the two points that were ultimately decisive in the conversion (12-10), since the ‘Lions’ knew how to defend the pair of rental units in a long last possession well managed by Roberto Ponce.

The exclusion of Manteca for tapping the ball forward forced Spain to defend the entire first half against South Africa, which crashed three times against the ‘Lions’ tackles, until Ronald Brown opened the scoring on the brink of half-time with a solo raid from the base of the scrum (0-7).

Sebastian Jobb scored the second try for the ‘Blitzbokke’ as soon as the second half began and the successive scores of Shilton Van Wyk and Tristan Leyds aggravated the defeat that Jeremy Trevithick covered up, in the last minute, with a personal action in which overwhelmed the entire South African defense (7-28).

Trevithicka winger from Marbella of English origin, decided the match against Great Britain with two identical tries, one in each half, posed next to the flag after two attacks in the first phase (0-10) and left Spain’s qualification for the semifinals at the expense of New Zealand not beating South Africa.

The South Africans did not fail, since they won by a tight 17-12 and qualified as first in the group to play the semifinal against Australia, while Fiji and Spain will compete for the other finalist spot.