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.[1] 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.[2]

Spain played their first officially recognised match in 1929, winning 9–0 over Italy in the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc.[2] 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.[3]

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 playing Classic All Blacks at Metropolitano Stadium in 2022.

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 2013 for the first time following a 25–18 win over the higher ranked Georgia making headlines with semi-pro back Jack Rowland making a surprising call up, due to both fly-half and first team inside center pulling out with injury moments before the squad was announces. Rowland a last moment replacement scoring 12 out of the 25 points on his international debut. Surprising ranked Georgia first time in 29 years with a victory. Spain remained in the top 20 throughout the year, ending 2013 ranked 19th.[4] 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.[5] 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 ineligible players, ended their hopes.

A similar outcome occurred in 2022 when the team initially qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup after wins over direct rivals Romania and Portugal but was later disqualified due to fielding a player who didn't meet the selection criteria. This second expulsion resulted in many veteran players abandoning the national team and the Spanish side struggled to get good results in the 2023 rugby championship campaign. With heavy defeats against Georgia and Portugal and a narrow home defeat to Romania.

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 20 as of 23 October 2023[9]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		South Africa	092.79
2		New Zealand	091.56
3		Ireland	090.57
4		France	087.81
5		England	083.72
6		Scotland	083.43
7		Argentina	082.42
8		Wales	080.64
9		Australia	077.48
10		Fiji	076.38
11		Italy	075.93
12		Japan	074.27
13		Portugal	072.78
14		Georgia	072.68
15		Samoa	072.23
16		Tonga	071.57
17		Uruguay	067.39
18		United States	066.22
19		Spain	064.05
20		Romania	063.28
21		Namibia	060.56
22		Chile	060.49
23		Canada	060.46
24		Hong Kong	059.80
25		Russia	058.06
26		Brazil	056.35
27		Netherlands	055.84
28		Switzerland	055.72
29		Belgium	054.58
30		South Korea	053.46
* Change from the previous week
Spain's historical rankings
See or edit source data.
Source: World Rugby[9] Graph updated to 23 October 2023

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Spain national XV at test level up until 27 August 2023.[10]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Andorra	3	3	0	0	100.00%	129	3	+126
Argentina	5	0	5	0	0.00%	78	211	–133
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
Canada	4	2	2	0	50.00%	163	165	–2
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
England	1	0	1	0	0.00%	17	86	–69
England U23	2	0	2	0	0.00%	19	31	–12
Fiji	2	0	2	0	0.00%	33	82	–49
France XV	24	1	23	0	4.17%	283	1075	–792
French Military	4	1	2	1	25.00%	34	52	–18
Georgia	24	3	20	1	12.5%	337	752	–415
Germany	14	10	3	1	71.43%	391	193	+198
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
Italy A	1	0	1	0	0%	11	13	–2
Japan	3	0	3	0	0.00%	43	114	–71
Kenya	1	0	1	0	0.00%	27	36	–9
Moldova	1	1	0	0	100.00%	40	7	+33
Morocco	18	13	5	0	72.22%	332	142	+190
Namibia	7	5	2	0	71.43%	174	134	+40
Netherlands	17	16	0	1	94.12%	517	134	+383
New Zealand Māori	2	0	2	0	0.00%	15	88	–73
New Zealand Classic	1	0	1	0	0.00%	26	33	–7
Poland	16	10	6	0	62.50%	320	207	+113
Portugal	41	27	12	2	65.85%	890	644	+246
Romania	39	4	35	0	10.53%	442	1115	–673
Royal Air Force	4	0	2	2	0.00%	26	59	–33
Russia	24	8	16	0	33.33%	592	674	–82
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	2	0	2	0	0.00%	19	68	–49
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	–140
Uruguay	13	6	7	0	46.15%	198	250	–52
Wales	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	54	–54
Wales XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	16	65	–49
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	398	165	220	13	41.56%	7591	8852	–1261

On the 26 October, the following 32 players were called up for the 2022 end-of-year rugby union internationals.

Head Coach: Santiago Santos

• Caps Updated: 6 November 2022

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Vicente del Hoyo	Hooker	(1996-02-15) 15 February 1996	18	Ciencias Sevilla
Santiago Ovejero	Hooker	(1997-12-11) 11 December 1997	10	AS Mâcon
Bittor Aboitiz	Prop	(1988-10-05) 5 October 1988	8	US Seynoise
Raúl Calzón	Prop	(1997-06-16) 16 June 1997	1	Valladolid RAC
Joaquín Domínguez	Prop	(1996-02-13) 13 February 1996	2	CR El Salvador
Thierry Futeu	Prop	(1995-06-23) 23 June 1995	19	C' Chartres Rugby
Jon Zabala	Prop	(1996-11-27) 27 November 1996	24	Béziers
Gorbei Allende	Lock	(2001-04-10) 10 April 2001	0	Saint Jean de Luz
Manuel Mora	Lock	(1985-03-08) 8 March 1985	37	Ciencias Sevilla
Mario Pichardie	Lock	(2001-01-31) 31 January 2001	0	Loughborough Uni. RUFC
Víctor Sánchez	Lock	(1987-06-20) 20 June 1987	36	CR El Salvador
Alejandro Suárez	Lock	(1995-12-12) 12 December 1995	1	La Vila
Facundo Dominguez	Back row	(1997-01-04) 4 January 1997	10	FC Barcelona
Matthew Foulds	Back row	(1991-04-27) 27 April 1991	21	CR El Salvador
Guillermo Moreton	Back row	(2000-12-24) 24 December 2000	1	Cisneros
Raphael Nieto	Back row	(2000-08-27) 27 August 2000	0	Stade Niortais
Afaese Tauli	Back row	(1990-04-29) 29 April 1990	22	Santboiana
Matheo Triki	Back row	(2001-02-02) 2 February 2001	10	Chambery
Kerman Aurrekoetxea	Scrum-half	(2000-05-04) 4 May 2000	7	Biarritz Olympique
Tomás Munilla	Scrum-half	(1998-08-03) 3 August 1998	16	Béziers
Bautista Güemes	Fly-half	(1990-05-12) 12 May 1990	13	Barcelona
Gonzalo Vinuesa	Fly-half	(2001-05-15) 15 May 2001	6	Cisneros
Daniel Barranco	Centre	(1999-01-12) 12 January 1999	1	Barcelona
David Barrios	Centre	(1999-05-02) 2 May 1999	0	Castilla y León Iberians
Jerry Davoibaravi	Centre	(1994-06-12) 12 June 1994	1	CR El Salvador
Federico Castiglioni	Wing	(1990-08-10) 10 August 1990	30	Aparejadores
Julen Goia	Wing	(1991-12-12) 12 December 1991	32	Ordizia
Jordi Jorba	Wing	(1997-05-08) 8 May 1997	36	Ciencias Sevilla
Iñaki Mateu	Fullback	(1997-03-17) 17 March 1997	5	Ciencias Sevilla
Paclo Rascon	Wing	(1999-07-21) 21 July 1999	0	Aparejadores
J. W. Bell	Fullback	(1990-01-18) 18 January 1990	9	CR El Salvador
Guillermo Dominguez	Fullback	(1997-01-31) 31 January 1997	4	Ciencias Sevilla

• Alberto Malo (1986–1999) – 89 caps
• Francisco Puertas Soto (1994–2001) – 93 caps
• César Sempere (2004–2014) – 56 caps, 31 tries, 177 points
• Pablo Feijoo (2002–2015) – 67 caps, 20 tries
• Esteban Roqué Segovia (2004–2007) – 22 caps, 285 points
• Oriol Ripol (1998–2002) – 17 caps, played 8 seasons in English Premiership
• Diego Zarzosa (1998–2009) – 46 caps
• Cédric Garcia (2004) – 3 caps, played 12 seasons in the French Top 14

The current coaching staff of the Spanish national team:[11]

Name	Nationality	Role
José Manuel Pérez	ESP	Manager
Pablo Pérez	ESP	Manager
Santiago Santos	ESP	Head coach
Miguel Velasco	ESP	Assistant coach
Mar Álvarez	ESP	Strength & Conditioning coach
Dr. Alberto Gomez	ESP	Team doctor
Pablo Amich	ESP	Physiotherapist
Roberto Murias	ESP	Physiotherapist
Valentín Telleriarte	ARG	Video-analyst