The Spanish rugby 7 team will play this Sunday for ninth place in the Hong Kong tournamentthe inaugural stage of the 2022/23 World Series, after a second day in which lost to Fiji, current Olympic and world champion (21-35), and beat Japan (33-19).
The start of the match between Spain and the ‘Flying Fijians’ was very promising, since a long offensive action full of patience and precision in the passes led Manu Moreno to open the scoring, although the Oceanic team responded on the next play with a run to the sticks of Iowane Teba.
The end of the first half and the beginning of the second period was fatal for the national teamunable to contain a rival who monopolized the oval and put distance on the scoreboard (7-28) thanks to consecutive marks from Waisea Nacuqu, Josevani Saro and, again, Teba.
In the last two minutes, Spain reacted through Manuel Sainz-Trápaga, served on the right wing with a long pass from Juan Martínez, and from Martínez himself, who stole the center kick to put the tie at tryout, although a break by Filipe Sauturaga with the clock at zero raised the account to the final 21-35.
Against Japan, at the end of the group stage, the national team based the victory on the magnificent performance of its captain, Juan Pedro Ramoswho opened the scoring after intercepting a Japanese transmission, served Pol Pla the second mark in a cross and pulled the lead by completing his brace early in the second half.
Koki Yakushiji, with a run of ninety meters, scored the first try of a Japanese ‘seven’ who kept in contact with their rival thanks to two marks from Yuu Kurihara, although Spain always found offensive answers to ensure victory with the annotations of Enrique Bolinches and Juan Martinez (33-19).
