Spain holds Off EIRA in 2nd Meeting
Spain holds Off EIRA in 2nd Meeting
Spain's U18s defeated Eagle Impact Rugby Academy 49-36 Sunday in the second of two matches between the two teams in Valladolid, Spain.
The EIRA side had recorded their first not-loss against Spain two days ago with a 17-17 tie and were hoping to record their first victory today. However, a very speedy and effective start to the game for Spain put EIRA in a hole that they couldn't quite climb out of.
In a very high-scoring affair Spain opened the scoring off a lineout and working through a couple of phases to get a conversion try. The lineouts were a source of unhappiness for the EIRA side all day as they couldn't quite get the connections right and their organization on defense could have been better.
"Spain got a lot of go-forward possession and we didn't off lineouts," said Head Coach Salty Thompson. "It was a very fast-paced game and I think at times we were a bit panicked in our decision-making."
EIRA got off the mark at nine minutes with a penalty from Ben Saunders. Then the tourists took the lead after a long period of solid defense. They ran a play off a scrum in the middle of the pitch that worked Finlaye Mitchell on a bit of a misdirection play and he set up Saunders to score and convert. EIRA was up 10-7 but the rest of the half belonged to the Spanish. A wide attack was just stopped by a superb tackle from James Rose, but Spain's forwards swarmed in, re-won the ball and they were over. A lineout turnover five meters from the EIRA tryline set up a bit of a gift try for Spain, and then a failure to get into position on defense opened up a gap.
Those three tries were all converted and Spain led 28-10 at halftime.
In danger of cratering the EIRA team pulled it together. Cort Schmidlin intercepted a pass and galloped in for a try, and soon after than a bice launch from a scrum set up wing Nate Comiskey to go in front long range. That made it 28-22. Spain responded with two quick tries, both converted, to make it 42-22.
But EIRA finished well. Hooker Holden Hahn was in support of a powerful carry from lock Sederik Saxon and the #2 scored. Euan Latimer's conversion made it 42-29. Spain punished a penalty to get to 49 only to see EIRA respond. Again working off a scrum—that part of the game led to three Eagle Impact tries—Lucas Meranda attacked wide. The forwards did well to win quick ball and scrumhalf Matt Chevalier was in. Latimer converted to make it 49-36.
For EIRA Chevalier was very effective at the base of the scrum, Saxon, who had missed the first game against Spain due to injury, was a key addition, while Saunders and Latimer at flyhalf and Rose at fullback stood out.
But the pace of the game and the pace of the tour caught up with them. Spain played all of their players in the first match and whittled down their options for the second. The EIRA players, who were playing their third game in six days, confessed to being a bit fatigued.
"It's been a long week," said Saunders. "And I think the fatigue showed up in terms of our physicality. We matched their pace pretty well and we picked it up in the second half, but it was tough."
"We wanted to come out with the win and what we did do was dig deep in the second half," added Latimer.
"Spain played some good phase ball and we made some mistakes," added Comiskey. "We had a couple of moments where we didn't fold well on defense."
Overall, then, a bit of a disappointment for EIRA because they thought they were poised for a win. But down 28-10 at halftime they regrouped nicely and won that second half 26-21 and kept playing hard to the end.
