Spain score a try in their first game of the day. MIGUE FERNÁNDEZ

Spain's men's and women's teams start the World Series with defeat

The men couldn't overcome Perry Baker's USA on day 1, and lost 14-19, while the women were thrashed 5-21 by Ireland

PEDRO LUIS ALONSO

Friday, 21 January 2022, 20:25

Spain's men and women rugby 7s teams did not get their World Rugby Seven Series off to a good start on Friday. The added pressure of being hosts for the first time seems to have got to the Lions and Lionesses.

In the morning game, the women's side were thrashed 5-21 by a strong Ireland, one of the favourites to win the tournament. Olivia Fresneda was the one to get a consolation try in the last kick of the game, but was not close to counter tries from Parsons, Flood and Higgins, as well as conversion by Mulhall.

Afterwards, the men's team were shocked to lose against USA, who have in their ranks one of the world's best 7s player in Perry Baker. Even though Spain came into the game with the expectation of winning, they conceded two tries very early on, scored by the aforementioned Baker and Tomasin. The Spanish side reacted well, scoring a couple of tries of their own, but in the end Josep Serres and Pol Pla's efforts didn't amount to anything. This 14-19 defeat makes progression to the knockout phase more complicated as they are set to play Argentina at 8pm.

In other results from the men's pools on Friday, France were in stunning form, destroying Wales 38-10 and then Canada 38-5. Australia bounced back from a 12-12 game against Germany to steamroll Japan 42-0. Meanwhile, England defeated their historic rivals Scotland in a closely fought 24-17.

The women's pool also saw some stunning scorelines, such as Australia's 40-5 win over Belgium or France's 33-17 thriller with England, while Brazil and Russia went toe-to-toe in a 10-15 match.