Spain national rugby union team

The exact starting point of rugby union in Spain is unknown; Catalan student Baldiri Aleu introduced the game from France to a mainstream Spanish audience in 1921, but the game might have been played on Spanish soil earlier.[2] Through the 1920s, the game gradually gained popularity through universities in the country. The first Copa del Rey de Rugby was organized in 1926, and won by Barcelona. An unofficial Spanish XV played France, including Yves du Manoir, in 1927, but it was organised by a rebel governing body.[3]

Spain played their first officially recognised match in 1929, winning 9–0 over Italy in the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc.[3] During the 1930s the Spanish rugby team played sporadically in the 1930s, playing against the national teams of Italy, Morocco, Germany, and Portugal. Due to the outbreak of World War II, rugby in much of Europe was suspended, and this included Spain. Rugby operations throughout Europe were continued in the 1950s; through this decade the Spanish struggled to the likes of West Germany, Italy and Romania. This pattern of consistency continued somewhat in the 1960s and 1970s; Spain traditionally struggled versus more established opponents such as Romania and Italy, but beat other neighboring sides such as Portugal and Morocco. However, while no official games were played between Spain and the Home Nations or the SANZAR, some Spanish sides traveled to play against various foreign sides.[4]

The 1980s proved to be somewhat of a golden age for Spanish rugby; for the first time Spain played against non-FIRA competition, playing a test against both the Māori All Blacks as well as South American giants Argentina in November 1982, in Madrid. The Spanish were thrashed 66–3 to the Māori, but came close to upsetting Argentina, losing only 28 to 19. The Spanish also received Zimbabwe through various tests in the 80s. The Spanish recorded upsets, defeating Zimbabwe in Harare in 1984, winning 30–18.

Even more impressive, the Spanish swept a two-game tour in Zimbabwe, a team that had appeared in the 1987 Rugby World Cup, winning 28–16 and 14–9 in Bulawayo and Harare. Other notable results in this period included beating Uruguay 18–6, as well as giving scares to the sides of England and Scotland, and coming within 10 points of beating the Māori in 1988. By the end of the 80s, Spain was considered one of the best non-5 Nations teams in Europe, just barely behind Romania, Italy, and the Soviet Union. Spain officially joined the IRB in 1987, after not being invited for the 1987 Rugby World Cup, despite the USSR declining an invitation.

Spain playing against the Czech Republic in 2007.

The 1990s provided a mixed fortune of both near misses and eventual success. In the 1991 qualifying rounds, Spain easily toppled its first group consisting of the Netherlands, Poland and Belgium, all games being played at home. However, Spain very narrowly missed on qualifying for the Rugby World Cup, losing 19–6 against Romania, finishing third behind Italy and Romania. In 1992, Spain finally beat Romania for the first time in 1992, winning 6–0. Spain again nearly beat Argentina that same year, only losing 43–34 in a shootout in Madrid.

1995 began in similar fashion to the 1991 campaign, easily toppling the first group. However, Spain were unfortunately placed in a group with Wales, losing the key fixture 54–0, and again coming close, yet not close enough.

Spain began their quest for 1999 Rugby World Cup qualification in Pool 3 of Round B of the European qualification. They won all four of their games in the round, finishing first in the group above Portugal. They, along with Portugal advanced to the next pool round with Scotland. They finished second and qualified for their first Rugby World Cup.

For the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Spain were in Pool A, along with Scotland, South Africa and Uruguay. Their first ever World Cup game was played against Uruguay, with Spain losing 27–15. They lost their subsequent pool games to Scotland and the Springboks by 40 points, both of which were played at Murrayfield. They failed to score a try in the tournament, the only team in the World to have qualified but not scored a try in the World cup.

Spain began 2003 Rugby World Cup qualifying games in May 2002. Spain advanced to Round 3 after defeating Portugal. However, they lost to both Italy and Romania, and moved through to face Russia for a place in the repechage competition. Despite losing the first game in Madrid 3–36, and looking dead in the water, Spain pulled off a very unlikely victory, winning 38–22. Despite losing on aggregate, Spain went through the repechage due to Russia being disqualified for fielding ineligible players. They defeated Tunisia and moved on to face the United States. Spain lost 62–13 and 58–13, again missing out on the World Cup.

Spain playing against Portugal in 2013.

For the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Spain finished at the top of Pool A or Round 2 of the European qualification and advanced to Round 3 where they went into Pool A. Here they won all four fixtures to finish at the top and advance to the play-off. There they faced Germany, and although they lost the first game, they won the second and went through on a 42–28 aggregate and went into Round 4 where they defeated the Czech Republic to enter Round 5. However they lost out to Romania and Georgia in Pool B, ending their hopes of reaching the World Cup in France.

Spain missed the qualification for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, this time struggling through their fixtures. They lost 8 of their 10 fixtures, beating only Germany those two times, and missed out on advancing to the next round of qualifying.

Spain entered the top 20 in the IRB ranking in February 2012 for the first time following a 25–18 win over the higher ranked Georgia, and Spain remained in the top 20 throughout the year, ending 2012 ranked 18th.[5] Despite this, the 2015 campaign was similarly disastrous, winning only two of their games as well as two draws. This led to a restructure of the makeup and strategies of the FER.[1] Spain has recently participated in the World Rugby Nations Cup and the 2014 IRB Tbilisi Cup.

The 2019 qualifying saw the team markedly improve; in 2017 they beat Germany, Russia and Belgium, and lost narrowly to Romania at home. The Spaniards started 2018 with great fortune, as they defeated Russia on their home soil for the first time since 2002, and defeated Romania for the first time since 2012. With both of these victories, Spain led their qualifying group and looked set for a possible qualification at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but a controversial defeat at Belgium in the last round, and a heavy deduction of points because of fielding of illegible players, ended their hopes.

FIRA Nations Cup (1965 – 1973)
Nation	Games				Points			Table points	Champs
	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff
France	26	25	0	1	824	198	+626	65	7
Romania	26	17	1	8	528	222	+306	51	1
Czechoslovakia	17	2	2	13	135	411	–267	16	0
Morocco	9	2	0	7	65	332	–267	13	0
Italy	13	4	1	8	86	227	–141	12	0
West Germany	10	1	1	8	81	132	–51	6	0
Spain	3	1	0	2	56	55	+1	5	0
Poland	3	0	0	3	19	132	–113	3	0
Portugal	3	0	0	3	23	108	–85	0	0

Note: Green signifies promotion; red signifies relegation. Italic signifies current competition.

Men's World Rugby Rankings
Top 30 rankings as of 9 March 2020[9]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		South Africa	094.19
2		New Zealand	092.11
3		England	088.41
4		Ireland	084.91
5		France	082.73
6		Wales	082.64
7		Australia	081.90
8		Scotland	080.68
9		Japan	079.28
10		Argentina	078.31
11		Fiji	076.21
12		Georgia	072.88
13		Tonga	071.44
14		Italy	071.07
15		Samoa	070.72
16		United States	068.10
17		Uruguay	067.41
18		Spain	067.14
19		Romania	065.36
20	4	Russia	062.13
21	1	Portugal	061.27
22	1	Hong Kong	061.23
23	1	Canada	061.12
24	1	Namibia	061.01
25		Netherlands	060.08
26		Brazil	058.89
27		Belgium	057.19
28		Switzerland	054.11
29		Chile	053.83
30		Germany	053.13
*Change from the previous week

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Spain national XV at test level up until 7th March 2020.[10]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Andorra	3	3	0	0	100.00%	129	3	+126
Argentina	4	0	4	0	0.00%	75	149	–74
Argentina XV	2	0	2	0	0.00%	13	81	–68
Argentina Jaguars	1	0	1	0	0.00%	7	41	–34
Australia	1	0	1	0	0.00%	10	92	–82
Australia A	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	36	–33
Barbarians	1	0	1	0	0.00%	26	52	–26
Belgium	17	14	2	1	81.25%	484	123	+361
Brazil	1	1	0	0	100.00%	67	28	+39
Canada	2	0	2	0	0.00%	49	97	–48
Chile	5	3	2	0	60.00%	151	86	+65
Croatia	2	1	0	1	50.00%	84	35	+49
Czech Republic	8	6	2	0	75.00%	340	116	+224
Czechoslovakia	5	2	2	1	40.00%	69	63	+6
Denmark	1	1	0	0	100.00%	53	13	+40
Emerging England	1	0	1	0	0.00%	17	86	–69
England U23	2	0	2	0	0.00%	19	31	–12
Fiji	1	0	1	0	0.00%	20	39	–19
France XV	24	1	23	0	4.17%	283	1075	–792
French Military	4	1	2	1	25.00%	34	52	–18
Georgia	19	3	15	1	15.79%	280	590	–310
Germany	13	9	3	1	69.23%	359	179	+180
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	100.00%	29	7	+22
Hungary	1	1	0	0	100.00%	63	9	+54
Italy	27	3	23	1	11.11%	187	581	–394
Emerging Italy	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	37	–37
Japan	3	0	3	0	0.00%	43	114	–71
Kenya	1	0	1	0	0.00%	36	27	–9
Moldova	1	1	0	0	100.00%	40	7	+33
Morocco	20	13	5	0	65.00%	332	142	+190
Namibia	7	5	2	0	71.42%	178	156	+22
Netherlands	14	13	0	1	92.86%	394	107	+287
New Zealand Māori	2	0	2	0	0.00%	15	88	–73
Poland	16	10	6	0	62.50%	320	207	+113
Portugal	36	24	10	2	66.67%	769	524	+245
Romania	37	3	34	0	8.33%	370	1065	–695
Royal Air Force	4	0	2	2	0.00%	26	59	–33
Russia	22	6	16	0	23.81%	502	625	–123
Scotland	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	48	–48
Scotland XV	4	0	4	0	0.00%	34	211	–177
Scotland A	1	0	1	0	0.00%	7	39	–32
Slovenia	1	1	0	0	100.00%	76	6	+70
South Africa	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	47	–44
Soviet Union	7	0	7	0	0.00%	60	152	–92
Sweden	2	2	0	0	100.00%	58	30	+28
Switzerland	1	1	0	0	100.00%	40	0	+40
Tonga	1	0	1	0	0.00%	13	28	–15
Tunisia	5	4	1	0	80.00%	141	51	+90
Ukraine	2	2	0	0	100.00%	76	19	+57
United States	3	0	3	0	0.00%	29	169	–149
Uruguay	11	5	6	0	45.45%	156	211	–55
Wales	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	54	–54
West Germany	10	4	5	1	40.00%	137	96	+41
Yugoslavia	4	4	0	0	100.00%	86	17	+69
Zimbabwe	7	5	2	0	71.43%	153	108	+45
Total	373	152	206	15	40.38%	6914	8175	–1261

Spain`s squad for the 2020 Rugby Europe Championship.

Head Coach: Santiago Santos

• Caps Updated: 17 February 2020

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player Position Date of birth (age) Caps Club/province Marco Pinto Ferrer Hooker (1987-11-11) 11 November 1987 21 AS Béziers Vicente del hoyo Portoles Hooker (1996-02-05) 5 February 1996 8 CR El Salvador Alberto Alonso Blanco Prop (1990-10-08) 8 October 1990 19 VRAC José Díaz Prop (1998-06-22) 22 June 1998 0 VRAC Thierry Futeu Prop (1995-06-23) 23 June 1995 6 Stade Français Nicolás Jurado Prop (1998-12-14) 14 December 1998 1 CR El Salvador Jon Zabala Prop (1996-11-26) 26 November 1996 11 Anglet Olympique Michael Walker-Fitton Lock (1986-10-02) 2 October 1986 10 CR El Salvador Lucas Guillaume Lock (1991-04-15) 15 April 1991 18 SC Albigeois Manuel Mora Lock (1985-03-08) 8 March 1985 19 Independiente RC Josh Peters Lock (1995-10-12) 12 October 1995 6 Blackheath F.C. Victor Sánchez Borrego Back row (1987-06-20) 20 June 1987 20 CR El Salvador Gautier Gibouin (c) Back row (1991-03-24) 24 March 1991 43 USON Nevers Juan Pablo Guido Back row (1990-09-23) 23 September 1990 4 CD Aparejadores Nathan Paila Back row (1991-05-28) 28 May 1991 3 VRAC Fréderic Quercy Back row (1991-07-06) 6 July 1991 6 USON Nevers Lionel Tauli Back row (1990-04-29) 29 April 1990 11 UE Santboiana Tomás Munilla Scrum-half (1998-08-03) 3 August 1998 6 AS Béziers Lucas Rubio Scrum-half (1991-05-29) 29 May 1991 8 Un-attached Brad Linklater Fly-half (1985-05-16) 16 May 1985 30 Alcobendas Rugby Gonzalo Vinuesa Fly-half (2001-05-15) 15 May 2001 0 CR Cisneros Álvar Gimeno Centre (1997-12-15) 15 December 1997 18 AS Béziers Nicolás Nieto Centre (1995-03-17) 17 March 1995 0 Independiente RC Pierre Nueno Centre (1995-05-15) 15 May 1995 1 Section Paloise Richard Stewart Centre (1990-11-04) 4 November 1990 12 Alcobendas Rugby Federico Castiglioni Wing (1990-08-10) 10 August 1990 26 Independiente RC Ignacio Contardi Wing (1991-03-08) 8 March 1991 33 Independiente RC Julen Goia Wing (1991-12-12) 12 December 1991 27 Ordizia RE Baltazar Taibo Wing (1997-01-30) 30 January 1997 0 VRAC JW Bell Fullback (1990-01-18) 18 January 1990 2 VRAC Sergio Molinero Fullback (2000-07-04) 4 July 2000 0 CD Aparejadores

• Alberto Malo (1986–1999) – 89 caps
• Francisco Puertas Soto (1994–2001) – 93 caps
• César Sempere (2004–present) – 53 caps, 27 tries, 161 points
• Pablo Feijoo – 19 tries
• Esteban Roque Segovia – 257 points
• Oriol Ripol (1998–2002) – played 7 seasons in England
• Diego Zarzosa (1998–2009) – 43 caps
• Cédric Garcia (2004) – 3 caps, plays in the French Top 14