Santiago Santos faced the press conference this Wednesday prior to the debut of Spain in the European Championship (this Sunday against the Netherlands, at 12:45 in the Central) wanting to talk about rugby, as usual. But the truth is that the focus had diverted in previous days on account of an interview granted by the president of the Federation, Juan Carlos Martín ‘Hansen’, to the newspaper The worldin which he assured that the man from Alcalá “will not continue” in command of the ship and that an “agreed relief” will take place soon.
“This week it is time to talk about the party, not about the president or the future. Fortunately there is plenty of time this year to see the future of the coach. We are going to finish this championship and we will see. My future is secondary, irrelevant. The important thing is that this group has all the means, from all walks of life, to qualify for the next World Cup”, he commented in this regard. Saints. “The short term is to help in this championship and the medium is that there is everything necessary. There is tremendous quality and I am convinced that we are going to qualify for the 2027 World Cup and that we have the level to reach 12th place in the world ranking. It is more relevant to talk about what is necessary to be competitive. Maybe the problem is there and not in the coach, who is an element, ”he added.
Would you like to continue? “Neither was nor fa. My commitment is to Spanish rugby. What I want is for Spain to go to the World Cup. I don’t care if I’m inside or outside. I have satisfied my desires or my craving for prominence. If I can help from within or without, I will help. I have no problem. What I really want, because I believe that Spanish rugby deserves it, is that what the National Team needs to be competitive is really generated”.
In the first stake of the renewed format, which has made the Six Nations B obsolete because now the competition is structured in two groups of four, with the best two of each classified for the semifinals for the title and the rest for a secondary draw , Spain will face a rival that may present more complications than before, reinforced with players from “South Africa, New Zealand…”. Santos asks to go “game by game”, a cholisto philosophy that he usually preaches, but he sets the ceiling high: “We have a renewed group, in the last four years we have been runners-up three times, that is the bar. We have the potential to be champions. It is a team that is giving me very good feelings in each training session, but you have to watch it compete”. “We seek to maintain the level and the new people have assimilated it,” says Jon Zabala, one of the heavyweights of the locker room, about the new youth with which Spain faces a year of transition while looking for a new pattern among a list in which They have cast important names, for now without a winning horse.