With Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 only two months away, Spain will be delighted to have scrum-half Anne Fernandez de Corres back to full fitness from an elbow injury, following a superb individual performance from the 26-year-old against Hong Kong in Valladolid on Saturday.

Winning her 60th cap, Fernandez de Corres scored two first-half tries and then completed her hat-trick late on in the game as Spain brought the curtain down on a 41-18 victory that will put them in good stead for the challenges that lie ahead at Ireland 2017.

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Hong Kong, too, will take some encouragement as they put in a much-improved performance from the one that saw them beaten 57-0 by Las Leonas back in December 2015.

Despite resting their sevens contingent following their exploits in Langford last week on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Series, and fielding five players aged 20 or under, Spain took the game to Hong Kong from the off and were 22-0 up with half an hour played.

FAST START

“We knew Spain would come out of the gate hard and we wanted to strangle them and prevent them from getting any momentum. We weren’t able to achieve that, unfortunately, but we did well to claw our way back into it,” admitted Hong Kong coach Jo Hull.

Angela del Pan opened the scoring in the third minute before Fernandez de Corres got in on the act with tries after 14 and 20 minutes. Paula Medín added Spain’s fourth try on the half-hour mark, but Carlota Méliz was only successful with one of her four conversion attempts.

A gritty effort – led by the determined defence of flanker Cheng Ching-to and the inspired attack of winger Aggie Poon Pak-yan – saw Hong Kong claw their way back into the game in an evenly contested second half. 

Poon scored all of Hong Kong’s points, opening her account with a penalty in the 33rd minute to bring the half-time score to 22-3.

POON BOON

In the second half, the match opened up even further, with Spain starting the scoring in the 46th minute with a try for Isabel Rico. Irene Schiavon took over the kicking duties and extended Las Leonas’ lead to 29-3 with the conversion.

Hong Kong grew in confidence as the match wore on and were rewarded for their resilience in the 51st minute when Poon converted her own 45-metre try, followed by a penalty to make the score 29-13.

Spain bounced right back with a barnstorming attack, throwing the ball around with abandon as they made 80 metres before eventually creating a massive overlap on Hong Kong’s try-line for full-back Uribarri Barrutieta to score their sixth try. 

Fernandez de Corres’ hat-trick try took Spain to 41 points, but Hong Kong re-grouped to marshal a final attack on the Spanish line and Poon dragged three defenders over with her as she scored from 25 metres out.

The test match concluded Hong Kong’s mini tour of Spain, which included a 19-8 midweek loss to Valladolid in a non-capped match.

"We let them play too much rugby and we let their nine and 10 get too involved"

Coach Jo Hull reacts to her side's loss to Spain

TOUR LESSONS

“We let them play too much rugby and we let their nine and 10 get too involved," reflected Hull. "There were periods that we managed their pressure well, but our challenge now is to turn that 50 minutes into 80 minutes. But, overall, it was an improved performance against a much stronger side than the mid-week game.

“We were more accurate in our attack and we had less handling and unforced errors, despite a big increase in the intensity of the game, so I’m pleased with that.

“This experience will absolutely hold us in good stead. Since we left this group has shown significant improvement and we have capped five new players on tour, which is vital for us in extending our squad ahead of the World Cup.”

The result had no impact on the World Rugby Women’s Rankings as Spain went into the match ranked 16 places higher in seventh and nearly 25 rating points better off.

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JAPAN RUN IRELAND CLOSE

Meanwhile, Japan, who Hong Kong face in the Asia Rugby Women's Championship in July, were also in action in Europe this weekend as they took on Ireland in a trial match at the UCD Bowl in Dublin.

Ireland came out on top 24-22, in what was a dress rehearsal for their WRWC 2017 Pool C meeting at the same venue on 13 August, but the Japanese will take plenty of encouragement from running the 2017 Women's Six Nations runners-up so close.

With 10 minutes remaining in the contest, Ireland trailed 22-12 against an impressive Japanese side that breached the home side's try-line on four occasions, but thanks to the combined try-scoring efforts of Hannah Tyrrell and Claire Molloy, who crossed for her second late on, in addition to Paula Fitzgeral's earlier score, they came out on the right side of the result.