Spain win vital Czech encounter

RWC qualifier

On Saturday afternoon at the Josef Kohout Rugby Stadium in Ricany Spain beat the Czech Republic 33-12, an important win, especially away from home.

The second leg is in Madrid at the end of September.

The winner of this Europe Round 4 qualifier will go into Round 5 with Romania and Georgia.  The winner of that will go to the 2007 World Cup in France.  The runner-up will go into répechage.

On a pleasant if windy afternoon, Spain were always ahead, leading 13-0 at half-time thanks to two penalty goals by Esteban Roqué who also converted the try by Alfonso Mata five minutes before half-time.  Mata's try came from a maul started by prop Javier Salazar.

Early in the second half the Spanish Lions increased their lead to 20-0 with a try by scrumhalf Pablo Feijoo.  No.8 Óscar Astarloa tapped a penalty and sent Feijoo on a 60-metre run for the corner.

After the Czech coach had made several changes a try by Jiri Skall got the Czechs on the scoreboard.  Martin Kafka converted.

Esteban Roqué kicked two more penalties before Vaclav Jursik scored the Czechs' second try.  26-12.

Rafael Álvarez chipped, chased, gathered, beat two defenders and scored Spain's third try.

Scorers:

For Spain:

Tries:  Mata, Feijoo, Álvarez
Cons:  Roqué 3
Pens:  Roqué 4

For Czech Republic:
Tries:  Skall, Jursik
Con:  Kafka

Teams:

Spain:  15 César Sempere, 14 Juan Cano,, 13 Javier Canosa, 12 Alvar Enciso, 11 Rafael Alvarez, 10 Esteban Roque, 9 Pablo Feijoo, 8 Óscar Astarloa, 7 Alfonso Mata, 6 Rafael Camacho, 5 César Bernasconi, 4 Andrew Ebbet, 3 Javier Salazar, 2 Mathieu Cidre, 1 César Caballero.
Replacements:  16 Diego Zarzosa, 17 Ion Insausti, 18 Sergio Souto, 19 Cyril Hijar, 20 Igor Mirones, 21 Andrei Kovalenko, 22 Victor Marlet

Czech Republic:  15 Krejcí Tomáš, 14 Jursík Václav, 13 Rohlík Jan, 12 Kafka Martin, 11 Cí?ek Martin, 10 Snídal Martin, 9 Vítezslav Dosedla, 8 Miroslav Nemecek, 7 Ladislav Vondrášek, 6 Jirí Buryánek, 5 Jan Machácek, 4 Robert Voves, 3 Pavel Indrák, 2 Jan Oswald, 1 Lukáš Rapant
Replacements:  16 Jirí Skall, 17 Patrik Leroch, 18 Karel Kucera, 19 Martin Hudák, 20 Pavel Vokrouhlík, 21 Jaroslav Tomcík, 22 Martin Pachman

Referee:  Andrew Small (England)
Touch judges:  Rowan Kitt, Andrew Pearce (both England)
Match commissioner:  Klaus Blank (Germany)