EIRA U18s 17 Spain U18s 17
EIRA U18s 17 Spain U18s 17
The Eagle Impact Rugby Academy U18 Boys tied Spain's U18s Thursday in Valodolid, Spain.
This is the 5th time EIRA and Spain have played, and the first four games were all relatively convincing wins for the Spanish, albeit with the winning margins getting progressively smaller.
But bolstered by a 94-15 victory in a warmup game, EIRA came out with a strong purpose defensively and a good understanding that Spain's very quick style of play was manageable if they retained focus.
Hooker Holden Hahn opened the scoring in the 5th minute with a try to give EIRA a 5-0 lead. Spain replied when a turnover inside the EIRA 22 set up a chance for the Lions and a kick to the corner netted an equalizing try.
With Hahn in the sin bin late in the first half, Spain was able to score on a counterattack and that made it 12-5 for the hosts.
Just before halftime big lock Alex Plank burst through to get close to the line. Spain were penalized and No. 8 Aiden Kemp crashed over. With the conversion the teams were tied 12-12 at the break.
In the second half EIRA played with the wind but it was Spain that threatened early. The Lions got to the tryline but lost the ball in-goal, leading to a goalline dropout. From there Spain once again counter-attacked well and scored to make it 17-12.
On the game went with neither team being able to take control. With time running out EIRA put together one of their better multi-phase sequences. The ball was eventually shipped out to wing Nate Comiskey who burst through to touch it down and tie the game 17-17.
EIRA did have a chance to win it on a difficult, long-range penalty by Euan Latimer, but the kick drifted wide and the game ended 17-17.
This was a huge step forward for EIRA in holding Spain to a tie. At the same time, players knew they had more to give.
"Just really proud of the crew and what they put into it," said Head Coach Salty Thompson. "We want to come here to close the gap and you can see that."
"We made some little mistakes, little errors that they capitalized on," said captain Akariva Vuta. "But we're very close now. We have the commitment and we definitely now know that if we put in the work we can win against them."