No country for rugby men? How tiki-taka philosophy put Spain on the cusp of Rugby World Cup glory
Former flanker turned Hollywood star Javier Bardem once described playing rugby in Spain as “like being a bullfighter in Japan”.
Despite its proximity to the relative European rugby powerhouses of France and Italy, the sight of a cauliflower-eared back rower in the land of Real Madrid and Barcelona would be as incongruous as a traditionally-clothed Matador in the land of the rising sun, so argued the actor who played for his country at junior level.
Yet this weekend could see Spain firmly established as a country for rugby after all. The national team travel to Brussels on Sunday to play Belgium in the Rugby Europe Championship — effectively a second-tier Six Nations — where a win will see them qualify for the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1999 and only the second time ever.
Last weekend, 16,000 fans including King Felipe VI lined the grassy banks of Spain’s quaint national rugby stadium in Madrid to revel in their national side’s 84-10 hammering of Germany.
Los Leones’ 12-try rout followed last month’s crucial 22-10 victory over Romania, just their third over the East Europeans in 33 meetings. Now Spain travel to Belgium knowing a win would see them leapfrog Romania at the top of World Rugby’s qualifying standings and become Japan’s opposition in the opening game of next year’s World Cup.
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The King’s presence, the team’s success and a potential place at rugby’s flagship tournament has all led to an unprecedented level of attention on the sport. “The Lion King” was the front page headline of Monday’s edition of Spain’s most widely-read daily newspaper Marca, which afforded the rugby team top billing for the first time in its history.
Head coach Santiago Santos believes this is a rubicon moment for rugby’s popularity in Spain.
Spain have recorded impressive victories over Germany and Romania this year (Source: Getty)
“It’s incredible for us to have the King and more than 15,000 people at the stadium,” he told City A.M.
“To put that in context, the last time the King of Spain came to watch our national rugby team was the grandfather of our current King in 1929. That is a good measure of how big rugby is becoming in Spain. When the King goes to watch rugby, it means rugby is becoming important in Spanish society.”
It’s not just the national team that has earned Spanish rugby royal attention. A tipping point arrived in 2016 when Spain beat Samoa to qualify for the Olympic Sevens tournament in Rio.
Earlier that year Barcelona became the setting for the largest crowd for a domestic rugby match when 90,000 filled the Camp Nou to watch Racing 92 beat Toulon in the French Top 14 final, while a record crowd of 26,500 fans turned out for that year’s Copa del Rey de Rugby final in the relative rugby hotbed of Valladolid.
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Another sell-out crowd is expected at the 53,000 capacity San Mames Stadium in Bilbao for this year’s European Champions Cup final, yet the growth is not limited to spectators. The number of registered players and clubs has soared since the World Cup appearance in 1999. There are now 34,232 players and 299 clubs across all 16 regions of Spain.
“The key issue now is not just to achieve qualification for the World Cup, but also to put ourselves in a position to do the same in 2023 so it doesn’t just become something that happens every 20 years,” general secretary of the Spanish Rugby Federation Eliseo Patron-Costas told City A.M.
Part of that growth strategy has been to introduce rugby as an inclusive sport, free from some of the class associations that come with the sport in countries like England, Australia or Argentina.
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“University rugby is still a strong movement but the challenge for us was to spread and increase the number of clubs,” says Patron-Costas. “A lot of former international rugby players only started to play rugby in university. Now, a lot of the players are starting to play at ages like six to eight like in other countries.
“But that more elitist club structure like in Argentina, we don’t have it here. We don’t look at which neighbourhood players come from or who their parents are.”
As head coach, Santos has been similarly keen to establish a distinctly Spanish flavour for his side. Unlike fellow second-tier Europeans Georgia and Romania, traditionally associated with a strong scrum and attritional rugby, Spain have adopted the “tiki-taka” possession philosophy of their all-conquering cousins in football.
“We want to play a very quick game,” says Santos.
“We don’t want to kick. We want to keep the ball alive, to play with the ball in hand, with fast rucks, a lot of offloads.
“I think it’s inspired by the football way of playing in Spain. To keep the ball, to keep playing, the tiki-taka of the Spanish football team. We are inspired by the same principles of play; if you are able to keep the ball and move fast, it is difficult for the defence to adjust.
“Being in Spain, you learn a lot as a coach from people like [Pep] Guardiola and the Spanish style of football. We take a lot of ideas from that and bring them to rugby.”
While the Spanish football team are expected to win the World Cup, the rugby team will be heroes just for qualifying. Beat Belgium on Sunday, and few will expect much more against Scotland, Ireland and Japan in Pool A next year.
After all, establishing bullfighting in Japan is some achievement in itself.