Spain lose two homegrown talents to Tier 1 nations in one week

It had looked likely for a while but now it is official. This week Spain lost two homegrown players in lock Lucas Paulos to Argentina and Samu Ezeala to France.

Lucas Paulos (top row third from right) and Samu Ezeala (bottom row on the left) with Spain U18 in 2016

Paulos with Argentina

Paulos was born in Argentina but moved to Spain with his parents at an early age and came through the ranks at CR Majadahonda. He represented Spain at U16 and U18 level and moved to Mont-de-Marsan espoirs in 2015, but at the end of his first season there went back to Argentina along with Iñaki Mateu to try and see if they could make it in Argentina.

Both made a Pumitas training squad, but ultimately only Paulos made it into the full squad for the World Rugby U20 Championship in June 2017. Mateu instead returned to represent Spain and made his international debut that June ironically against Argentina XV, whose colours he had been wearing only a few months earlier.

Since then Paulos' reputation has grown after returning to the U20 Championship this year and he has been called up to extended 37 man Pumas training squads. However his eligibility was only officially tied to Argentina this week as he played in the Argentina XV side alongside a few other U20 players in the Americas Pacific Challenge.

Ezeala with France 7s

Also this week Samu Ezeala represented France at 7s in a friendly tournament in Cheshire. Given the nature of the tournament which appears to be mostly a practice run ahead of the World 7s Series, it is unclear whether or not these matches are official enough to tie Ezeala to France, but regardless he was wearing French colours and seems to be viewed as a potential 7s player for them.

Ezeala came through at Barcelona Universitari Club, but after another member at the club Jordi Jorba left to play professionally in France decided he wanted follow, and sent his videos out and got accepted by Clermont in 2015 moving at a very young age. He still represented Spain up to U18 level in 2017 but after starring as part of a French champion Espoirs team and reaching the first team at Clermont set his goal to eventually play on a bigger stage for France.

In August he said whilst his aim was to play for France U20 next year he was not shutting down the possibility of ever playing for Spain. U20s no longer ties eligibility, and he could still play for Los Leones if he didn't reach France at senior level.

That seems to have very quickly gone out of the window now though with his selection to France 7s, which came as a slight surprise both as we making the Clermont first team, and given Bernard Laporte said in 2016 that from now onwards foreign born players would require a French passport. However apparently this doesn't apply to 7s, so he can play for them having only just completed 3 years residency but is still not eligible for 15s selection.

Unlike Paulos though who is a 119kg lock, there does still remain the possibility however remote that Ezeala could still return for Spain via the Olympic qualifying loophole. That switch could only happen in 2024 or 2028 though depending on a 3 year stand down period from representing France.

Spain has very rarely ever had any talents come through their system of the calibre to make a Tier 1 selection (hence why their team has been so reliant on French heritage players). So the loss of two young players within a week is a blow, especially as a player with the size of Paulos is such a rarity in Spanish rugby (although another young player in Alex Gimeno is of similar dimensions), and to lose a special talent like Ezeala so young not even to a full team but to 7s is also disappointing.

[Correction: Ezeala does in fact remain eligible for Spain due to a new ruling that a player under the age of 20 cannot be captured playing 7s. That rule had previously been for players under the age of 18, which saw for example Thretton Palamo play for Samoa 7s aged 17 and then go on to represent the USA. We did not know of this rule change before writing this.]

However the fact they have had this calibre of talent come through is potentially a sign of an improving domestic talent pool of young prospects that was not there before.

For years Spain's local talent base has barely been Rugby Europe Championship worthy. Indeed in 2013 after Regis Sonnes departed and disagreements in the Union led to them leaving out French players in favour of local based talent they tumbled backwards from their best ever finish of 2nd to bottom of the REC. Their coach Bryce Bevin was sacked, and needless to say that refusal to pick French players was short lived. Also prior to Sonnes bringing in many French players, Spain were also relegated from the REC in 2004 and were getting nowhere near a return to the RWC again.

There is still a long way to go, but notably Spain recently produced their best ever U20 side in 2016 which very nearly pulled off a huge shock taking Samoa to extra time in the U20 Trophy final. Had they won that match they would have been the first nation outside of the regular RWC nations to have reached the top 12 in the world at the junior level.

Spanish U18 fly half Eric Guitart is with Toulouse espoirs

Since then the Spanish path back to the U20 Trophy has been blocked by Portugal, who themselves have had success at youth level, notably beating Scotland at U18 in 2015, U20 Trophy runners up in 2017, and this year finished third but were probably in reality the second best team in the tournament giving the U20 Trophy winners Fiji their hardest match.

However Spain's U18 team (several of whom played a year young) finally beat Portugal 17-0 at age grade level this year there is reason to believe that a very decent U20 team could emerge out of that over the next two or three years with a number of those players signing to clubs in France in hope of a professional career. That is notably unlike Portugal whose most talented remain at local clubs.

Biarritz in particular appear to have been actively scouting for talent in Spain. Three players from Madrid Javier Prieto, Gonzalo López, and Nico Rocaries have all played in their Espoirs side this season. The fly half from the U18 team Eric Guitart is part of the Toulouse espoirs squad. Two of that team's most impressive players Joel Merkler (also at Toulouse) and Matheo Triki (La Rochelle) are also at big French clubs. Whilst the standout from the U20 team Tomás Munilla signed for Béziers afterwards and could soon feature for the senior national team.

Spain U18 forwards Joel Merkler and Matheo Triki combine with offloads
to create a break against Portugal in this year's Rugby Europe tournament

Overall there are at least 15+ Spanish players (see table below) in Top 14 or Pro D2 Academies and Espoirs teams right now, most of whom will not be effected by JIFF regulations, and those born after 1998 should form the core of their U20 teams over the next couple of years.

Spanish Espoirs in France
Name	Pos.	Born	From (club/region)	Signed to (club/league)
Lucas Santamaría	LH	2001	CR Liceo Francés (Madrid)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Xabier Solano	LH	2001	Hernani CRE (Basque Country)	Bayonne (Pro D2)
Iker Aduriz	HK	2001	Hernani CRE (Basque Country)	Bayonne (Pro D2)
Juan Carlos Sánchez	HK	2001	(Andalusia)	Racing 92 (Top 14)
Joel Merkler	TH	2001	CR Sant Cugat (Catalonia)	Toulouse (Top 14)
Javier Prieto	TH	1999	CR Liceo Francés (Madrid)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Gorbei Allende	LK	2001	Uni Bilbao (Basque Country)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Alex Gimeno	LK	1997	CAU Rugby Valencia (Valencia)	Béziers (Pro D2)
Hugo Carriere	FL	2001	CRC Pozuelo (Madrid)	Provence (Pro D2)
Matheo Triki	FL	2001	CRC Pozuelo (Madrid)	La Rochelle (Pro D2)
Urko Zumeta	N8	2001	Zarautz Rugby (Basque Country)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Tomás Munilla	SH	1998	Marbella RC (Andalusia)	Béziers (Pro D2)
Eric Guitart	FH	2000	CR Sant Cugat (Catalonia)	Toulouse (Top 14)
Nico Rocaries	FH	2000	CRC Pozuelo (Madrid)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Gonzalo López	CT	2000	Alcobendas Rugby (Madrid)	Biarritz (Pro D2)
Martín Alonso	WG	1999	VRAC (Valladolid)	Clermont (Top 14)
Samu Ezeala	WG	1999	Barcelona UC (Catalonia)	Clermont (Top 14)
Jordi Jorbá	WG	1997	Barcelona UC (Catalonia)	Perpignan (Top 14)
Dario Porta	WG	2001	CR Les Abelles (Valencia)	Béziers (Pro D2)

In addition to that there is also the likes of Andorran full back and Spanish age grade player Pep Arasanz at Exeter's Academy, plus French born Spanish age grade representatives Tommy Vaysset in Béziers and Simón Zubizarreta at Mont-de-Marsan.

Obviously most of those players may not make careers at professional level, but if about even five or six (especially in the key positions of tighthead prop and fly half where it can be very difficult for Tier 2 sides to find capable players) of those careers progress successfully that would put Spain's national team in a far better position going into the 2020's than they have ever been in terms of being able to select more homegrown players as part of a competitive Rugby Europe Championship team alongside the eligible French players.

Only time will tell though, but hopefully even though they are lost to the national team Paulos and Ezeala can be an example (similar to Tim Visser in the Netherlands) of what other players from Spain can achieve at the elite level of the sport moving forwards into the future.