Spain secure World Cup place

Spain beat Scotland 15-10 in the second leg of their World Cup qualifier to secure their spot at next year's event in Ireland.

Published by Alison Donnelly, November 26th, 2016

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Spain secure World Cup place

Having won the first leg 10-5, Spain were always the favourites on the return leg at home, and though Scottish coach Shade Munro will be proud of how his team has improved under his tenure in recent years, they just fell short.

In front of a healthy sized 3,500 strong crowd, Spain for the second time this year, qualified for a major tournament, following their 7s side qualification for the Olympics in the summer.

Over the two games against Scotland, they were worthy winners, with an aggregate score of 25-15 .

Their reward is to qualify for the tournament in Ireland next summer where they are in a pool with England, the United States and Italy.

As in the first leg, Scotland came out of the blocks quickly and took advantage with some strong early surges. However a try within 10 minutes for the hosts settled the nerves with  Amaia Erbina crashing over.

But Scotland stayed patient and worked a fine try for ing Rhona Lloyd who crossed the line after a lovely pass from Lisa Thomson to make it 5-5.

As she so often does for Spain in both 7s and 15s, Patricia Garcia grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck and her try took Spain out in front at the break and meant an uphill battle for Scotland, who needed to win by 6 clear points.

It was tense stuff with so much at stake for both sides Scotland drew level with a try for  Sarah Law whose kick through saw her pounce after nobody was able to deal with the ball in the in goal area.

That levelled it up but Scotland were caught napping from a quick tap and Marina Bravo’s try meant Spain had a cushion of ten points going into the final part of the game.

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