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The Lions will play a decisive match this Saturday in Russia in order to qualify for the World Cup. Among the headlines, the forward from Cantabria, “a physical wonder” experienced in multiple jobs and various sports.
Manu Mora started so late in rugby that he is not willing to leave soon. He was 24 years old, he had played football in his neighborhood since he was a child and had excelled with Astillero in the trawlers, where he competed at the highest level. Today, close to 37, he embodies with his career the transition from amateur to professional rugby and is the oldest in the call-up of the Spanish team before the matches in which he aspires to win a place in the World Cup in France.
The XV del Len visit Sochi this Saturday (11:00, RTVE Play) with the obligation to beat a Russia that returns to a very physical style. In their victory last Saturday against the Netherlands (43-0) Spain showed details that need to be improved. “We have to play more united, it was the first match [de la segunda vuelta] and it was noted that we lack a bit of order in the system”. Portugal’s unexpected draw in Georgia has further complicated the classification. “We continue to work and only look at Russia; if we do things well it depends on us”, analyzes Mora.
If he ended up getting bored with rowing, the second row from Cantabria (1.88; 106 kilos) enjoyed rugby from the first day until he developed an endurance race, almost an obstacle course. Of constancy in training although currara at night at a disco or during the day at a construction site. “When I started working as a bricklayer, we did renovations, bathrooms, kitchens… I went home, rested a bit and went to train. I put up with it well, on Monday and Tuesday I was limping, but scabies doesn’t itch with pleasure”recalls by phone from the concentration of the selection in Guadalajara.
He had come from the hand of a friend to the current Mazabi Santander Independiente RC “to try”. Tristán Mozimn, coach of the first team and who has directed him for many seasons, remembers from that time a training session in which Manu and another rookie with an imposing physique ended up hooking up with each other in a brawl. “Neither of them knew the rules, that rugby is a contact sport but it has rules, I sent them to run together until their anger passed, the two continued playing for a long time.”
Step by step, brick by brick, Manu Mora rose twice in the category with his club until he reached the Division of Honor, debut with the national team, emigrated to France in his thirties. He now plays for a modest team, the Olyimpique Agathois of the Federal League 2 and paradoxically now has a contract to play rugby in an amateur squad. Looking back over the years, he admits that he would have liked to start earlier but also that, when he did, he “couldn’t think that he was going to go to another country to live from a sport”.
Coach Mozimn defines him as “a physical wonder” and stresses that he is “a smart boy, a guy from the street, from the neighborhood, very naughty”. He also highlights “his mental strength to play with bigger players, go forward, beat them in contact, he always delivers, he doesn’t wrinkle.” In November, Mora had the only Spanish test in the defeat against Fiji. He was facing rivals with millionaire contracts in the elitist Top 14, several categories above his own.
A veteran in the engine room
That mark culminated an effort to undermine the entire Spanish forward line and Mora refers to that collective effort to explain the weapons of the Santiago Santos team. “The front, the pick and go and the maulthat we work well, and the speed of three quarters”. A recipe that expands for Saturday. “To beat the Russians we have to have a lot of discipline and a good defense, not conceding blows is one of the keys.”
Like the XV of the Lionthe Bears The Russians are very dangerous when they serve from the side in the opposite 22: that’s how they got their three tries last Saturday against Rumana. Spain, for its part, committed few offenses against the Netherlands and, finally, received no cards.
Manu Mora was precisely one of the temporary expelled in the match that Spain lost in Bucharest in the first round. “Without cards we would have won the game,” he lamented when taking stock. “The anxiety, the character makes us be very impetuous and there we made a little mistake, we committed many punishment blows and many indiscipline, at this level you cannot fail there.”
He admits that he feels very comfortable pushing in the engine room of the mel, Cleaning to the opponents and advancing on that platform that, like an armored turtle, looks for the rehearsal. “In the scrum he is very solid, the second-row position is fundamental and he is an animal. He doesn’t have a route like a third-row, but both in defense and attack he makes a lot of difference in contact.” His starts in the last matches corroborate these words of Mozimn. When it takes a lot of opponents to bring him down, he generates superior numbers and spaces that his teammates can take advantage of if the ball gets to him early.
The tireless Manu was not stopped by confinement. The increase in home orders gave him an extra job opportunity in a relative’s company in Cantabria. “There I went to distribute, I had been locked up for three days and it can’t be, I got out, I’m always like that, from work, I don’t like to stay home lying down. Somebody knew who I was and I wondered what I was doing there”.
“Mora essay in the twilight of her career!”, exclaimed the narrator of Rugby Europe in November when, full force, post against Russia. But that so-called twilight has come to him in full swing. So far, Santos has lined him up as a starter in the six official qualifying matches and also includes him this Saturday. “The good thing about being a veteran is setting an example; the bad thing is that you are already seeing the highway exit”, sums up the international“I would like to finish at home, at the highest level and in Spain. With the national team I hope to be able to retire in the World Cup”.
And after? “Rugby has fulfilled me, I would like to become a coach, start enjoying myself in another way”. Tristán Mozimn, who in turn trains him, also suggests his wish from Santander. “I am hopeful that he will play at least one more year with us before he retires.” Another incentive for Manu Mora to continue stretching the calendar.
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