Spain is close to promotion despite two narrow defeats on the first day in Bordeaux

The Spanish women’s rugby 7 team lost this Friday against Canada (12-14) and the United States (15-19) his first two games of the Bordeaux (France) tournament, the final stage of the World Series, and will have to wait until Saturday to certify his promotion to the first category.

In the first of the matches, Canadian Charity Williams put her team ahead as soon as the duel began, but Denisse Gortázar led Spain’s reaction with an interception five meters from her own goal area and could only be stopped on the counterattack with a hair pull from Carmen Izyk, who earned a fair temporary exclusion.

Gortázar herself completed the attack with which the ‘Lionesses’ tied during the two minutes of numerical superiority (7-7), but Taylor Perry put the North Americans ahead again two minutes into the second half, thanks to a robbery of the oval at the end of a long and fruitless Spanish possession.

A try by Abril Camacho, who attacked with power after lifting a ball from a ‘ruck’, could have caused extra time, although the position of the transformation was too corner and Carmen Miranda did not bill the two extra points, which left the score at 12-14 for Canada.

The United States, in the second match of the day, seemed like an unapproachable opponent, but Spain almost surprised the third-ranked team in the World Series thanks to excellent performance, especially in defense, and did not give up until scoring the decisive try after the horn.

Martina Serrano opened the scoring next to the right flag and María Calvo, despite the numerical inferiority due to Miranda’s yellow card, made it 10-0 after five minutes, although an individual play by the American Kaylen Thomas closed the gap in the last action of the first half (7-10).

A counterattack by Abril Camacho, who traveled 80 meters after breaking her defender, put two attempts away that the United States erased through Erica Coulibaly and, after a penalty hit by Ana Cortés for backhanding, with a mark by Ariana Ramsey that sealed the comeback with the clock already at zero (15-19).

Spain will close this Saturday, in a morning session, the group stage against Great Britain with the certainty that, thanks to the two defensive ‘bonuses’ obtained by its short defeats, a victory would qualify it for the quarterfinals and, therefore, would mathematically ensure promotion to the first division of the circuit.