Alba Vinuesa, Iberdrola League: beyond the competition 2021/2022
The next September 26 begins the Honor Division of women’s rugby (@DHIberdrola), nothing less than with a CR Cisneros – CR Majadahonda, after the end of the season where both teams fought for the leadership of Spanish rugby, remaining on the side of the schoolboys.
Tomorrow they will have the second installment of the interview with Alba Vinuesa, captain of CR Cisneros He tells us about the sensations for this season and the preparation for it.
Alba, debutant in the honor division in the 2017-2018 season and who was already summoned in that year to defend the national team, offers us her time, precisely in these days of full performance in preseason and call-up with the selection for the all-important team World Cup rankings New Zealand.
About rugby and competition
“Q” How is the preseason going? The competition ended very late for you and you will have had little rest time
“R” The truth is that this year these two seasons have overlapped us a bit. We finished playing the Queen’s Cup the last weekend of June and already this last week of August we have started the preseason with collective training in the field. It looks good, with many new and excited girls, who are more than welcome in this team.
For my part, this preseason I will not do it with the club. We are focused on the selection. The 11th, 18th and September 25th we have the World Cup qualifying matches against Italy, Ireland and Scotland. We will play in Parma and we will spend a total of four weeks preparing these matches. It is a difficult challenge, against very tough teams that all play in the Six nations. We face these games with enthusiasm and we hope to show the game that we have been working on for four years.
The selection is concentrated for this tournament in Jaca and will play a friendly in France for the preparation, having added 30 players led by José Antonio Barrio “Yunque”.
The World Cup will be played in New Zealand next autumn 2022, the competition having been postponed due to the pandemic. Regarding the health crisis,
“Q” What was the most difficult thing about the second post COVID season? Have you changed any of the routines from last year in the preseason?
“R” Last preseason we started the first weeks training with churros to replace the contact and thus comply with the safety distance. It was all quite rare and difficult to apply in this shock sport. That in terms of the preseason, because then in the rest of the year what the pandemic has forced us to do is to divide into bubble groups. We have two women’s teams in the club, one plays in the Honor Division and the other in Regional. As a result of the pandemic, we had to completely separate two bubbles that did not come together to train in order to avoid contagion.
Also from the federation, all the Honor Division teams have taken antigen tests every Thursday before the games. And now with the national one, we also apply all the protocols established by the authorities and the federation.
We continue in a line very similar to the protocols of the end of last season.
“Q” What stand out most of your team?
“R” I think this team is characterized by its youth and its attitude. We are humble, we know that we can lose against anyone but also that we can win whoever we have in front of us.
“Q” There was a lot of talk about the finalists at the end of the last league, therefore, what quality do you value most about the semi-finalists? They were very tight matches
“R” Yes, as I have commented previously, the semifinals (both ours and that of Majadahonda with Eibar) were very very tight. As for the teams, Sevilla It is a very, very tough team, especially in contact, with very powerful static phases. Majadahonda However, it is a team that has been together for a long time, they know each other very well and do not hesitate in their game system. It was a very even league in which anyone could win and be champion. We were clear about the game we wanted to do and how to do it. We knew it was not going to be easy at all and in fact in the semifinal we suffered a lot.
“Q” What feelings do you have for this year? You will start in a month, precisely with CR Majadahonda.
“R” I think it is going to be a difficult year. It is not easy to face the expectations of a season having made history the previous one by getting the double; There are times that we still don’t believe it!
We are going to compete, to be the best possible team and to play our best game, we know that there is always something that can be improved, so we will always try to be a little bit better in every possible way.
In the beginning the first game had touched us against Majadahonda at home. When coinciding with a match of the national team that day will move later. We will start the league On October 3rd in La Coruña against CRAT.
“P” Thank you very much Alba. Good luck with the national team in these next matches. Spanish rugby is very proud of your work.
“R” Thanks to you, I was delighted to answer these questions.
It is a luxury to have in Sixth Ring these details of the captain of the current champions of the competition and her feelings for these coming months. Wishing the best to the national team, the Iberdrola League and all its teams during the season.
@fcisneros1970
Featured photo: @ferugby and Alba Vinuesa
Photos via, Alba Vinuesa, @ferugby and @Rugby_Cisneros
