Scrumqueens reports: Spain aiming to continue 7s rise

from ScrumQueens:

This week ahead of their trip to Hong Kong, we caught up with Spanish women’s rugby 7s head coach Jose Antonio Barrio. He tells us how his side have been preparing this season with monthly camps and training games and why he is disappointed that Spain will not be part of the IRB’s third 7s event in London later this year.

Your pool sees you play USA, Dubai and Tunisia. Who do you think are your biggest threats?
Probably the strongest team in the pool is the USA. They are a very good team and have a better ranking than us so they will be a huge threat.

Tell us how you have prepared for this tournament?
This year we have had two key objectives and they are to perform well and be successful at key 7s tournaments such as Dubai and Hong Kong and then also to do well at the European Championships. This year to help us achieve our aims we have been holding one 7s camp a month with around 15 players. The key players are also following a specific fitness plan which is monitored closely. We try and work like a Club when we meet once a month and we play a lot of training games against other teams who we invite along. We’ve also used coaches from other sport such as the Spanish wrestling coach and the track and field coach.

You have recently held camps with Netherlands and Portugal – have these helped?
These have been a very good experience for us. The games have helped us to train in a way we couldn’t in a regular camp so it has been a major benefit.

What are your targets in Hong Kong?
Our objective is to compete and to win every match we play in and to improve the quality of our game. Ultimately we want to be placed in the top four teams in the world.

Why is Spain not taking part in the next IRB tournament – the London 7s in May?
It has been a surprise to us that we are not competing. We thought we were going to be invited with five places there for European teams so I don’t really understand it. London will be the first IRB 7s that will be played in Europe and Spain is the second team in Europe in terms of ranking at the moment and we are not going to take part. It is a reall shame for us. We hope that our games in Hong Kong will demonstrate that it has been the wrong decision.

Do you hope to be part of the IRBs World Series next year?
It is a really exciting project for women’s rugby. We have played in the last three Europeans 7´s finals so we really hope to be involved in the world series. It is one of the biggest developments for the women’s game and the environment from the IRB 7´s circuit will develop fantastic environment and atmosphere for the game.

Spanish squad for Hong Kong
BRAVO BRAGADO, Marina (C.R. MAJADAHONDA)
CASADO GONZÁLEZ, María. (C.R. MAJADAHONDA)
ESBRI ANTON, Laura.(INEF BARCELONA)
DEL PAN MORUNO, Ángela. (INEF BARCELONA)
CABANE PASCUAL Marta. (GEiEG)
PLA VEGUE, Julia. (GEiEG)
RIAL LÓPEZ, Ana Vanesa. (CRAT CORUÑA)
RODRÍGUEZ BERGARECHE, Isabel. (C.D. BIZKARIANS RUGBY)
GARCIA RODRÍGUEZ, Patricia. (R.C. LONS (France))
PLA VEGUE, Bárbara. (RICHMOND (England)
RIBERA GARCÍA, María. (RICHMOND (England)
MARTÍNEZ GARCÍA, Elisabet. (RICHMOND (England)