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Spain Head Coach Pablo Bouza has named a 30-man roster for the July Internationals. Spain will tour Oceania, playing away test matches against Samoa and Tonga. The tour is an important pathway for Los Leones who are targeting qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2027.
Bouza’s roster contains both regular and new players. This is true of the Argentine contingent; there are established players from Argentina and uncapped player from Argentina on the roster.
Bouza and his staff will gather in Barcelona with the players on June 30. The team’s matches will take-place on Saturday, July 13 in Apia and Friday, July 19 in Nuku’alofa. Ben O’Keeffe will referee in Apia and Pierre Brousset will do so in Nuku’alofa.
| JULY 2024 INTERNATIONALS – SPAIN FIXTURES |
July 13 
vs
(Apia Park, Samoa)
July 20 
vs (Teufaiva Stadium, Tonga)
| SPAIN ROSTER – FORWARDS |
PROP
Raúl Calzón
Thierry Futeu
Hugo Pirlet
Lucas Santamaría
Bernardo Vázquez
HOOKER
Vicente del Hoyo
Álvaro García
Santiago Ovejero
SECOND-ROW
Mario Pichardie
Ignacio Piñero
Alejandro Suárez
Imanol Urraza
BACK-ROW
Vicente Boronat
Ekain Imaz
Raphaël Nieto
Alex Saleta
Marc Sánchez
Asier Usárraga
| SPAIN ROSTER – BACKS |
SCRUM-HALF
Estanislao Bay
Pablo Pérez
FLY HALF
Bautista Guemes
Gonzalo Vinuesa
CENTER
Pau Aira
Manuel Alfaro
Alejandro Alonso
Álvar Gimeno Soria
BACK-THREE
John-Wessel Bell
Facundo López
Gauthier Minguillón
| CAREER – MANUEL ALFARO |
Born in 1996, Manuel Alfaro is a powerful, hard-running center. He plays his rugby for Ordizia Rugby Elkartea in the Basque region of Northern Spain. He joined the Spanish club from Argentina in January this year.
Prior to moving to Spain, Alfaro had experiences playing Super Rugby Americas (formerly Súper Liga Americana de Rugby). He played for Colombian side Los Cafeteros Pro and Argentine side Los Pampas.
Alfaro is 1,90m tall and weighs 104kg. He is a producto of Club Atlético Banco de la Nación Argentina in Buenos Aires. The same club also produced Hugo Porta and Fabián Turnes.
| CAREER – VICENTE BORONAT |
Vicente Boronat is a flanker from Buenos Aires. He moved to Spain in 2023 to play for Burgos in the División de Honor. His call-up by Pablo Bouza comes at the age of 26.
He was identified at a young age and played for Argentina u20′ at the World Rugby u20 Championship in 2016. He represented Argentina at Rugby Sevens the 2014 Summer Youth Games in Nanjing, China, winning Silver.
Boronat is a product of Club Atlético San Isidro (CASI), a traditional rugby club from the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. He is 1.90m tall and weighs 103kg.
| SPAIN ROSTER – ARGENTINA LEGION |
Manuel Alfaro and Vicente Boronet will have no language barrier; yet, the connections run deeper. Bouza’s roster features additional players from Argentina. They are of two varieties: players who were primarily produced by Argentina (homegrown in Argentina) and players who moved to Spain very young and are products of Spanish rugby.
Santiago Ovejero, Estanislao Bay, Bautista Guemes, Manuel Alfaro, Bernardo Vazquez and Vicente Boronat were born and raised in Argentina. Imanol Urraza, Iñaki Mateu, Facundo López were born in Argentina but raised in Spain. The roster is a reflection of the likelihood that Spain’s potential roster for Rugby World Cup qualifying and beyond will contains Argentines.
| RUGBY WORLD CUP 2027 – SPAIN |
Spain have competed at one Rugby World Cup. Los Leones debuted at Rugby World Cup 1999. The team was close to qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2019 and did qualify for Rugby World Cup 2023 only to be disqualified.
The disqualifications were for breaching player eligibility laws. The second was particularly concerning as it happened despite World Rugby allowing Scotland to select Wallaby Jack Dempsey, Wales to select Henry Thomas and Johnny Williams who played for England.
The rosters for Rugby World Cup 2023 had additional countries featuring players who transferred unions; that is to say, players who played test rugby for another country before representing the country they wore to colors of at the World Cup. World Rugby’s (mis)handling of eligibility laws meant that Scotland, Wales, South Africa Samoa and Tonga all selected players who had already played test matches for others.
Spain appealed the disqualification but lost. The Pablo Bouza era is about a new beginning; Spain have the ability to qualify for the World Cup and thus compete in Australia 2027. The next step in preparing of the qualifiers is the tour of Samoa and Tonga.
