That the Olympic Committee included seven-a-side rugby was a definite boost, and Spain took advantage of it by qualifying for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in both men and women. The elite are much closer in sevens than in traditional fifteen-game rugby, where it is difficult to compete with the great powers. Asturias will be from today a showcase of the great pearls of this sport in Spain. The men will play at the Muro de Zaro, in Avilés, and the women at Las Mestas, in Gijón.
The U18 and U16 coach of Asturias is none other than Berta García, who was international with Spain both in rugby at seven and fifteen. The culmination of the fabulous career of the former Luanquina player was the Rio de Janeiro Games. Now she is trying to spread the word among Asturian women so that they dare with a sport that is still a minority.
“The truth is that after such a difficult year going with the girls to this championship makes us very excited,” says Berta García. The former player is part of a project that “started four years ago.” “There are few girls playing in Asturias and what we try is that they start earlier. The clubs are doing a great job, ”he adds.
His example is very graphic of what rugby was in Spain a while ago: “I started at the University, in my last year at INEF, they were looking for fast people in the national team, the planets aligned and I arrived.” The teams that he is going to take to this championship, where Madrid and Barcelona are the big favorites, are conditioned by the lack of people. “In the U-18 many players now had the EBAU and we had to draw from U-16 players and for the U-16 some U-14s. In the U-18 there is a group of expert players, but they are few ”, points out García.
Berta explains that seven-a-side rugby has possibilities that many people don’t know about: “It has very powerful tools, fifteen rugby is complicated because you need a squad of 30 players and there are teams that can start with sevens to learn what rugby is.” And it is that, says the Olympian, “a good player of seven can play fifteen, but a good player of fifteen may not be able to play seven.”
At the head of the men’s U-16 team is Felipe Blanco, president of Belenos de Avilés, who celebrates that the kids will be able to have an experience like this at home. “Some of them are going to have their first first level experience and on top of that it will be at home, with their people.” Felipe only regrets having to leave out some of the players he called up in the first instance, starting with 28 called up, until he was left with only 14 members. “There is a good batch of players, who come from all the clubs, Cowper, All Rugby from Llanera, Gijón, Real Oviedo, Belenos and Tapia. I would have liked to summon the 28 with whom I started ”, he adds.
Invited to a party that starts today in Avilés and Gijón and where it is important to be attentive because everything is going very fast.
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