That Valladolid breathes rugby and is one of the most important focuses of this sport in Spain is not discovering anything new, but games like next Saturday reinforce this idea. The Spain of Pablo Bouza on his way to Australia World Cup 2027will be measured in an important mach test to the selection of Fiji, right now in the world Top 10 and more specifically in ninth place, endorsed by their recent victory against Wales. The crash will be this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at the José Zorrilla stadium in Valladolid.
Spain comes from winning the previous week in the first preparation match of this window to Uruguay at the Madrid headquarters and they face a team whose attack is one of the best in the world and will put the defense of the ’15 del León’ team. Those from Bouza are focused on preparing in the best possible way for the match in which the Australian ticket will be played, on February 1 against Netherlands and the idea of the federation that does not hide is that is played in Valladolid and Zorrilla, For this reason, this match against Fiji is also a test bed to measure the city’s capacity to generate the necessary atmosphere and make Spain feel at home in the city of rugby and in a stadium that already hosted that historic Cup final in 2016 with 25,000 attendees in an image that went around the rugby world.
Ticket sales for the clash are going well, although below expectations and at 13,100 confirmed It is expected that many more will join and the figure will be close to 20,000, which would be a complete success, which it already is if we take into account that in the aforementioned friendly against Uruguay there were barely 3,800 people in the Madrid Central. Tickets can be obtained through the FER website at this link.
Both teams arrived in Valladolid this weekend and are training in the different facilities that the city has. The ‘Flying Fijians’ were received by Mayor Jesús Julio Carnero in the Plaza Mayor, which attracted a lot of attention from the passers-by who attended the event as privileged. CIBIsimilar to the New Zealand Haka, at the foot of the town hall as well as the entire staff performing a song ‘Ke Dau Bibi Nai Colacola’ with which they thanked the Valladolid hospitality.
Waisea NayacalevuFijian captain, gave a t-shirt to the mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero, who in turn presented a replica of the Valladolid Town Hall to the expedition. After the formal words, in which Juan Carlos Martín, president of the FER, wanted to invite all Valladolid citizens to the game and to the large ‘fan zone’ that will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
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