Spain ready for World Cup qualifier

National coach, Ines Etxegibel, has released Spain's final squad of 26 players that will compete for a place at next year's IRB Women's Rugby World Cup.

The qualification tournament will be held at the National Rugby Stadium in Madrid's Central University City ,from 20 to 27 April. Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Samoa and Spain will compete for the last two places in France.

Spain has been preparing all season with their most ambitions programme of internationals since they last played in the Six Nations in 2006. "The Lions" have only missed one previous World Cup, when they lost to Sweden attempting to qualifiy for the 2010 tournament, having previously played in every event since 1991.

This season the Spanish Union has organised several training camps for the senior and A teams, as well as four friendly matches against  Italy, Ireland, Wales, and Nomads. The results of these games  (three defeats against Six Nations teams before a win against the Nomads) were less important than the experience of high quality rugby that the games provided the squad.

For the coach, Ines Etxegibel the "work done so far has been very positive in giving us the best possible chance to be competitive in the tournament. We are ready to go and look foward to qualifying for the World Cup."

Wing Eli Marrtinez is also looking forward to the challenge: "We'll go all out, our goal is to qualify for the World Cup next year and it is clear that we will fight all the way for that to be possible. We will meet some tough teams and we can not relax at all.Personally I am convinced we can do it but we will have to fight hard and not give up at any time, it will not be easy."

INEF Barcelona - ​​league champions for the three years - is the team with the most players in the squad (six), followed by Olympic Pozuelo RC (league runner-up), and the ARCT Universidade da Coruña (third), who each provide five players. All teams in the women's Division de Honor are represented.

Eight of the 26 players selected represented Spain when they last played in the World Cup in Canada 2006: Ana María Aigneren (captain), Lia Bailán, Berta García, Rocío García, Aroa González, Bárbara Pla, Elena Roca and María del Carmen Sequedo. They are joined by the coach Inés Etxegibel, who is in her last season. In addition to these eight 'veterans', half the team can call on the experience of winning the FIRA-AER European Championship in 2010, when the beat rivals Italy in the final.

The six teams in the tournament have been divided into two qualification pools of three teams, with each team playing against the teams from the other pool. The two pool winners will qualify.

Spain will begin against Sweden on April 20, on the next match day - April 23 - they will face the Netherlands and to close the tournament on April 27 they will meet Italy. All Spanish matches will kick-off at 17.30 CET. Highlights (and possibly webcasts) will appear on theSpanish RFU website.

SPANISH SQUAD:

FEDERACIÓN CATALANA

I.N.E.F. BARCELONA

CASTILLÓN, Alexandra

COSTA, Clara

DEL PAN, Ángela

ESBRI, Laura

GONZÁLEZ, Aroa

RIBERA, María

G.E. i E.G.

CABANE, Marta

MARTINEZ, Elisabet

PLA, Julia

GÓTICS R.C.

SEQUEDO, María del Carmen

FEDERACIÓN GALLEGA

C.R.A.T. A CORUÑA

GARCÍA, Berta

GARCÍA, Rocío

MEDIN, Paula

RIAL, Ana Vanesa

ROCA, Elena

FEDERACIÓN DE MADRID

C.R. MAJADAHONDA

CASADO, María

C.R. CISNEROS

BAILÁN, Lía

BRAVO, Marina

XV SANSE SCRUM R.C.

ALAMEDA, Lourdes

OLÍMPICO POZUELO R.C.

AIGNEREN, Ana María

GARCIA, Patricia

REDONDO, Elena

RICO, Isabel

SCHIAVON, Irene

FEDERACIÓN VASCA

BIZKARIANS R.E.

JAURENA, Saioa

PLA, Bárbara

World Cup Qualification TournamentNational Rugby Stadium, Madrid. From 20 to April 27, 2013

Group A

ItalySwedenNetherlands

Group B

ScotlandSpainSamoa

Matches(all times CET - one hour ahead of BST)

April 2013:30: Samoa v Italy 15.30: Netherlands v Scotland 17.30. Sweden v Spain

April 2313:30: Italy v Scotland 15.30: Sweden v Samoa 17.30: Netherlands v Spain

April 2713:30: Sweden v Scotland 15.30: Netherlands v Samoa 17.30: Italy v Spain