Spread too thin?
In an extensive English interview, Spanish Rugby Author Álvaro de Benito gave his thoughts on the reality of Spanish Rugby now, his thoughts on the focus for the current Federation whilst also looking back on Spain´s lost Rugby decade through his book ‘La Era Santos’. For Álvaro, with Spanish Rugby announced to be holding one leg of the HSBC SVNS , one area of concern is that “it seems like Spanish Rugby has an obligation to perform in all four areas, 7´s and 15´s, male and women. If you have enough resources you can do that but it´s a trap when you don´t have enough money.” Indeed, Álvaro highlights Uruguay or Georgia as nations that “don´t care anything about SVNS or Women´s.” Álvaro fears that this could mean “losing the focus.”
World Rugby Relationships and Building the Product
Álvaro is quick to praise the rebuilding and strengthing of relationships between the new Spanish Rugby administration and World Rugby, hopefully leading to a more lucrative relationship for Spanish Rugby. Still, Álvaro sounds a note of caution and realism about where Spanish Rugby is now. “We are a sport with fewer licenses than Volleyball.” and for Álvaro the area of improvement now needs to be that (31:30) “you need to create an internal product because we need to cover the months of activity where there are no national teams.” With Spain moving towards a two league 10 team structure, we asked Álvaro what he thinks of the current product and would he be in favour of franchising?
“In terms of the local product, you have a very strong core but you need to increase that otherwise you are always selling your product to the same people and this is something you can´t do with only the national team.” However, when it comes to franchising (36:00) Álvaro pours cold water on the idea of franchising “I think it will be almost impossible.”
“I always say the book is his (Santi Santos) truth, not my truth”
Turning to his book (45mins) ‘La Era Santos’ , which covers the lost decade of Spanish Rugby which involved Spain being removed from two Rugby World Cups despite on field success, Alvaro stated it was important to write the book “to have conversations with those that suffered” and to show how “Santi was able to improve the team.” When it comes to learning lessons from failures of previous administrations, Alvaro thought it was telling that noone from the current administration came to the presentation of the book with former Spanish coach Santiago Santos.
When asked for his recollections on the second disqualification, Alvaro remembers that “All the journalists at this match (Portugal) knew all this gossip that something was likely to happen, so it was like a funeral.” Here´s hoping that Spain´s lost Rugby decade can begin to be put behind them.
The full interview with Alvaro de Benito is available below and the book “La Era Santos” is available here, with a link to Alvaro´s website here. All photos are used with permission of Álvaro de Benito.