Spain name Las Leonas for World Cup

Spain have played over 100 test matches in an international story thatgoes back to 1989. They have recorded test wins over seven of the eleven other teams in the 2014 World Cup, including six wins out of nine in official tests against Wales and five out of nine against Ireland, and have won the European Championship on three occasions.

Their world cup history is equally long and impressive, having played in the tournaments in 1991, 1998, 2002 (when they were hosts) and 2006 before a shock (and still their only) defeat to Sweden in a qualifier meant that they missed out in 2010.

Spain were also members of the Five and Six Nations from 2000 to 2006 before they were replaced by Italy - not because of any playing reasons, but because the Six Nations Committee wanted the women's tournament to reflect the men's when they took over its organisation in 2007.

Nearly a decade later that decision still rankles with Spanish players and officials. and as a result they will be coming to Paris with a point to make.They were certainly the most dangerous of the the third group of seeds in the tournament draw and will be expecting to pick up at least one pool win, and will have been targeting a place in at least the top eight.

However prepartions have not been without difficulties. Attempts to organise a pre-World Cup tournament or attract test teams to Vallidolid during the season came to nothing, while their World Sevens Series campaign left a number of key players at less than full fitness when warm-up games began at the start of this month.

Most of the players forced to miss the games against France and an Irish XV have now returned, butthere are still some important names missing, most notably centre Laura Esbri (who scored the first vital qualification tries against Italy) and speedy wing/full back Julia Pla.

Key players to watch among the forwards will be hooker Aroa González (who, with 57 caps is the second-most capped player in their test history), props Rocío García and Mª Carmen Sequedo, flanker Ángela Del Pan, and captain and number eight Ana Mª Aigneren.

Most of the back line will need little introduction from anyone who has followed the World Sevens Series. Even so at fifteens Patricia García and Bárbara Plà play at centre, Berta García and Elisabeth Martínez tend to be on the wing, while Marina Bravo and Irene Schiavon compete for the number 15 shirt. Slightly less familiar, but key to Spanish success, will be Marta Cabané at scrumhalf and Helena Roca at fly.

However injuries and lack of test match opportunities mean that, even though four players in the squad are uncapped and five more have five or fewer appearances, the average age of still over 27.

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