The Spanish rugby team overwhelms the Netherlands (43-0) and tightens the fight to go to the World Cup

The Lions face from Saturday in Russia the four games that will decide their classification for France 2023

• six nations Antoine Dupont, the fashionable player who guides France in the Delacroix style

A prologue tinged with sadness and an ending marked by hope. The Spanish rugby team has beaten the Netherlands with hardly any opposition (43-0), winning the extra point for the difference in trials and making its way among the teams that knock on the door of the 2023 World Cup in France. Six games, 17 points and at least as many options as Romanian and Portugal. All three are separated by less than a victory.

Before the initial whistle, both teams shared a black jersey with the number 5 to pay tribute to the Spaniard Kawa Leauma, died in an unfortunate accident after the game in Amsterdam. The penalty was succeeded, on the local side, by the desire to overcome and dedicate the victory to him. Confused feelings to face a meeting in which Spain could not stumble. It did not.

Unlike last December, the Lions They took control from the start. They had started like the afternoon, as if it was hard for them to get warm. Without prevailing in mel but dominant on the side. Superior and at the same time intermittent.

constitutes the touch-maul the lethal weapon of the Spanish team. A safe resource although known by the rivals. The first time he was able to mount the platform on the opposite 22, he advanced to within a foot of the line and Usrraga got in (min. 10, 7-0 with the transformation of Ords). Santos’s men lost several chances to open the lead in the last meters, but the game seemed to be theirs. The Netherlands team, locked up, was forced to defend. From the other band the second mark finally fell, from Rouet, with the same recipe (min. 24, 14-0 with the transformation of Ords).

The first part, soulless and with little rhythm, left the implication of fly-half Manuel Ords as good news. Three times he tried to escape by creating a hole after feinting the pass. He didn’t succeed, but he created danger and pulled the team forward. The first half was already winding down when the Lions put together a multi-stage advance that unraveled the Netherlands defense and ended in Jorb’s essay (min. 38.19-0). Forty cold minutes concluded. paradoxically, with homework already done.

The visiting team, recently promoted, will take a while to get used to this category. At the moment, it accuses in excess the weight of the minutes. It is difficult for him to win a match, but he can become a judge if he takes points from an opponent in such a tight competition. His inferiority was clear in the 45th minute. Ords again accelerated the serve with a blow, connected with Minguillon and lvar Gimeno appeared to pose (26-0 with Ords’s transformation). A strut that the fifteen of Santos needs at full capacity in the next four finals.

The clash, resolved in advance, was left with a hint of nostalgia, perhaps an opportunity to wring the hand of fate. Santiago Santos, reserving players and trying out positions, put Belie on the pitch, the fly-half who has best led the Spanish attack in recent years. In 2018 the International Federation decided that it should not have been aligned with the XV del León and the sanction separated Spain from the World Cup. But a change in the regulations has allowed his return and he arrives at 34 years old ready to add. It remains to be seen how much magic he can display.

One of his competitors for the position, Ords, does not announce any facilities. Very fast, intuitive, from the position of defender, to which he had been delayed, he scored the trial he had pursued in the opening three quarters (31-0). And from the opposite corner came, in another race, the mark of Minguillon (36-0). The heeler Ovejero, with the support of the forward, put the final signature (43-0 with the transformation of Belie).

In the cyclical Spain of this championship, excited before the tournament, disappointed and dislocated at the start, confidence now appears. Neither when he lost the first three games was he hopeless nor after winning the next three should he abandon himself to euphoria. Santos’ team is finally conquering stability. In the lineup and in the results. This Saturday has been shown intermittently in the game. He didn’t need more either.