Disappointing sixth place for Spain in Hamburg, first stage of the European Championship

The Spanish rugby 7 team has been sixth in the first of the two stages of the European Championship which was held this weekend in Hamburg (Germany), where they have achieved two victories against the Czech Republic and Georgia and four defeats against Poland, Germany, France and Portugal.

Spain, with a much improved squad compared to the one that was third in the recent World Cup – even the coach, Paco Hernández, is absent so that the duo Javier Carrión and Perico Martín can replace him on an interim basis -, experienced a difficult first phase with defeats against Poland (14-26) and Germany (0-10) and a single victory against the Czech Republic (19-7).

Gabriel Rocaries and Noah Cánepa, two players with experience in the World Series, led the national team to victory against the Czechs that allowed them, thanks to a three-way tie, to be second in their group and qualify for the quarterfinals played in the afternoon session on Saturday.

Francewhich appeared in Hamburg with three Olympic champions in its ranks, closed the ‘Lions’ path to the semi-final (0-27) and, already on Sunday, a try by Beltrán Ortega and the corner conversion by Javier López de Haro led to the comeback against Georgia (14-12) which sent them into the fight for fifth place.

The last game of the weekend, against Portugalwas marked by the inaccuracies of both squads in a first half in which only the Portuguese Vasco Durao scored and which was unleashed in the second half, when Martim Días widened his team’s advantage in a play that led to the exclusion of the Hispanic-Fijian Jerry Surumi.

With numerical superiority, Hayden Hann fished the oval inside the Spanish twenty-two zone, quickly took the penalty shot and scored alone the third Portuguese try, replicated in the final moments by Noah Cánepa, who he escaped down the left wing (5-17).