Spain - Georgia.The Spanish rugby team is a few meters away from beating Georgia
Qualification for the 2023 World Cup in France. The Spanish rugby team starts qualifying for the 2023 World Cup in France against Georgia
International rugby: The road of the Pumas and the road of the Lions: the difficult progress in international rugby
Key game on the way to the 2023 World Cup. The Spanish rugby team visits Bucharest this Saturday (14:00, Rugby Europe website) in a European Championship match that will begin to define positions among the candidates to occupy the first two places , who give the direct pass.
The
Lions
have never won away
from Romania.
But the good game - despite the loss - in the debut against Georgia fuels their hopes.
Romania, a fierce rival who has suffered a defeat and a victory, is well known by
Jesús Moreno,
international on 54 occasions.
He has seen her closer than anyone from his position on the right side of those who push against opponents in each scrum.
From that fight with his body bent, his head between two others and the tension in his neck, Moreno passed a year ago to the band, when he took charge of the Marbella Rugby Club, in the Division of Honor B. "I am learning to be coach ", he explains from the town of Malaga.
He now watches elite rugby from the sidelines and agrees to look back to remember the rivalry between the two teams.
He was the protagonist of one of the most vibrant moments.
It took place in 2018, when both teams competed - as now - for the World Cup places.
A succession of punitive blows under the
Lions'
clubs
, which the Romanians refused to kick even though they represented three easy points.
They craved the seven in the trial and psychological superiority.
Scrum after scrum with the pressure on the back.
"In the third I tell my teammates
'Gentlemen, they are not respecting us, that we are in the Central, in Madrid, in our house' ....
They came with the mentality that that game was won, and that does not give you you can allow it. "
The international remembers how that successful defense on the edge of exhaustion was key in the Spanish triumph.
"The rugby that was played in that game, how it is achieved, how we manage the times, how we control them, made us worthy of going to play a World Cup, we behaved like a World Cup team," he says.
Three years later, the
Robles
still have "great kickers, they hit it from 50 meters" and with a powerful forward, the eight players fighting to gain possession of the ball.
"It is always a very complicated team, although Romania today is not the same as it was 10 years ago."
Moreno highlights his ability in the
ruck,
when the tackled player falls to the ground, leaves the ball and the rest are launched pushing the rivals with their shoulders and head to try to leave the oval on the side of their team.
"Each
ruck
is a battle. They are going to get dirty, they are going to throw themselves, they are going to put a leg in the middle and, watch out, that is also rugby ...
You hit a player, another comes and throws himself on top of you, and the fault is yours for not
leaving
on time.
That allows them to come out very clean or take a punishment blow that they send to the side, between five and ten meters from the mark line, they form a maul and rehearsal ".
In this way, from a side kick, the Romanians have achieved two of their four marks.
The scene he describes can be repeated on the flooded field that is expected this Saturday.
A priori circumstance not very conducive to rapid openings at the hands of the
Lions
, who will have their best men and
a pair of media, Rouet and Ordas, with experience in the Top 14
, the French First Division.
"Spain has an incredible game, speed, movement ... in which I have suffered a lot. I wish I had been born a Georgian ...", jokes Moreno, weighing 129 kilos at his peak.
At 35 years old, this pillar, an admirer of Santiago Santos' work in the national team, directs a piece of advice to his former colleagues: "Do not enter the
ruck
war
, try to fish there, isolate yourself a bit of that, to prevent unnecessary punitive blows from being fired at us in combat zones. By avoiding that, we take away almost 50% of their weapons. "
Jesús Moreno's worst experience with the national jersey also has a Romanian protagonist: Iordachescu.
The referee who scandalized by his double standards in a Belgium-Spain.
The defeat of the Lions classified Romania, the home country of the referee and the president of Rugby Europe, organizer of the championship.
"The first half we looked at each other astonished, we were completely in shock, inhibited. Obviously, we did not play the best game of our life, but we were very conditioned. We do not want it to sound like an excuse, we want it to be understood that this affects your game", Moreno comments today on that unfortunate Sunday in Brussels.
"In the locker room we conspire"
, he continues, "we know what is happening, we are going to go to his field, to kick, we played a much better second half ... We were changing winning the tables to win the heroic one."
Neither the biased arbitration stopped harming Spain after the break nor the team, unfortunate and off-center, gave time to the comeback.
In the end there were the visible protests and the harassment of some
Lions
to the Romanian.
A few unfortunate months began.
Without ceasing to consider that the arbitration was "a robbery, a scandal", Jesús Moreno distanced himself from the attitude of some colleagues.
"I apologized for them, even if they don't want to, what happened isn't rugby either."
He had insisted on aligning himself with Spain, ignoring requests to the contrary from his professional club in France.
The next day, with frustration and a bad body, when he returned they invited him to find another destination despite the fact that he had one year left on his contract.
"If I did not fall into depression it was because of my wife and my family and the affection of many fans, I touched the depression with my hands."
Then came the rigorous disqualification of Spain from the subsequent play-offs due to the line-up of two players.
"He finished, a kick to my beliefs," says Moreno.
"It has been difficult for me to reconcile with rugby; rugby does not betray you, it's the people."
Faced with the next qualifying cycles, he considers that - apart from the Six Nations - Spain must now place itself as "the second in Europe", after Georgia, and in the next, dispute that condition with the Eurasians.
"If I were not a pillar, I would like to be a pillar and, if not, a pillar"
, he insists on his responsibility in the right support of the training.
"The feeling in combat with your opponent is incredible."
And belonging.
"The feeling you have when you do a scrum and move a little bit or keep it stable, and the three-quarters do a rehearsal. They have made a double cross, with triple jump and double corkscrew and you say: 'it has been scored thanks to me 'And all you've done is be stable enough. But if not, that ball is lost. "
In today's rugby, where the significance of the scrum has been reduced, Moreno continues to vindicate the emotions of the front row.
"When you go over the other scrum, your heart beats your chest and not just from fatigue
.
"
He defines punishment trials
- which the referee grants when a team resorts to unfair play to stop the attacking forward -
as "a little orgasm
.
"
And he regrets that, as coach of the Marbella Rugby Club, he no longer takes to the field.
He finishes off with the non-transferable ironic look of the pillars on the companions behind: "Now you care what your three-quarters do."
Jesús Moreno is "very happy" that former colleagues of his age are still in the Santiago Santos calls.
"They deserve it, nobody has given it to them."
He left when he appreciated the progression of other younger men in the same position.
"The important thing is not the player but the national team."
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