Castilla y León Iberians

Castilla y León
Full name	Castilla y León Iberians
Founded	2021; 3 years ago
Location	Castilla y León, Spain
Ground(s)	Estadio Pepe Rojo (Capacity: 5,000)
Coach(es)	Miguel Velasco
Captain(s)	Kalokalo Gavidi
League(s)	Rugby Europe Super Cup
2021–22	3rd
1st kit	2nd kit
Official website
	www.iberiansrugby.com

The Castilla y León Iberians is a professional Spanish rugby union team based in the Castilla y León region. They compete annually in the Rugby Europe Super Cup.^[1] Their motto is "We are Iberians". Their homeground is Estadio Pepe Rojo, Valladolid.

History

The franchise was founded in 2021 as the Spanish representative in the Rugby Europe Super Cup. The Castilla y Leon Iberians is made up of the clubs from the Castile and León Rugby División de Honor, thus bringing together VRAC, El Salvador, and the University of Burgos (UBU) teams.

The Rugby Europe Super Cup competition features 8 teams or franchises in two groups or "conferences", which is played in a Round Robin format. At the end of the two rounds, the two best teams from each conference participated in the final phase.

During 2021 the Western Conference included the Brussels Devils of Belgium, the Delta of the Netherlands, the Lusitanos of Portugal, and the Castilla y Leon Iberians.

The Iberians qualified for the semi-finals, losing to the Black Lion 43-40 at Avchala Stadium.

The Rugby Europe Super Cup 2022 saw the Iberians in the semi-finals losing again to the Black Lion 41-9.

Home Ground

Estadio Pepe Rojo is located in the city of Valladolid, Spain. It is also the home ground of CR El Salvador and Valladolid RAC. The sports complex consists of five rugby fields (Field no.1 - main field; Field no.2; field no.3 - 'track and field'; field no.4 and field no. 5, - 'artificial grass' ), of which the no. 1 y no. 2 are used regularly for first-grade official competition.

The No. 1 field, which is the main field of the complex, has a roofed grandstand with seats at the west end, as well as a unroofed stand at the east end, with also a small stand at the north end, with the west stand being refurbished and expanded and the south end was built in 2016 (the stadium records big attendances when both teams play the local derby or a championship final). With this refurbishment it was possible to expand the capacity of Pepe Rojo to 1.150 seats, thus, reaching the amount of 6.000 seats in the No.1 field.

2021-22 squad

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Jordan Argerich	Hooker	(1993-04-06) 6 April 1993 (age 31)	0	Aparejadores
Pablo Miejimolle	Hooker	(1995-01-17) 17 January 1995 (age 29)	2	VRAC
Álvaro Pírez	Hooker	(1999-07-19) 19 July 1999 (age 24)	0	VRAC
Matthew Smith	Hooker	(1990-10-12) 12 October 1990 (age 33)	1	El Salvador
Andrés Alvarado	Prop	(1990-10-12) 12 October 1990 (age 33)	2	El Salvador
Alberto Blanco	Prop	(1990-10-18) 18 October 1990 (age 33)	22	VRAC
Raúl Calzón	Prop	(1997-02-16) 16 February 1997 (age 27)	0	VRAC
Lucas Favre	Prop	(1990-10-12) 12 October 1990 (age 33)	2	El Salvador
Nicolás Jurado	Prop	(1998-12-14) 14 December 1998 (age 25)	1	El Salvador
Leandro Wozniak	Prop	(1991-08-10) 10 August 1991 (age 32)	1	Aparejadores
Sacha Casañas	Lock	(1993-10-24) 24 October 1993 (age 30)	0	VRAC
Kalokalo Gavidi (c	Lock	(1981-10-09) 9 October 1981 (age 42)	15	VRAC
Víctor Sánchez	Lock	(1987-06-20) 20 June 1987 (age 36)	27	El Salvador
Daniel Stöhr	Lock	(1995-05-23) 23 May 1995 (age 28)	1	VRAC
Nicolas Walker	Lock	(1998-01-05) 5 January 1998 (age 26)	0	Aparejadores
Michael Walker-Fitton	Lock	(1986-10-02) 2 October 1986 (age 37)	13	El Salvador
Valentín Bustos	Back row	(2000-08-22) 22 August 2000 (age 23)	0	Aparejadores
Rodrigo Fernández	Back row	(2000-08-18) 18 August 2000 (age 23)	0	El Salvador
Ignacio Martínez	Back row	(1999-11-12) 12 November 1999 (age 24)	0	El Salvador
Siosiua Moala	Back row	(1989-05-29) 29 May 1989 (age 34)	0	VRAC
Marc Sánchez	Back row	(1999-08-21) 21 August 1999 (age 24)	0	Aparejadores
George Stokes	Back row	(1995-05-15) 15 May 1995 (age 28)	0	VRAC
Kirk Tufuga	Back row	(1991-06-04) 4 June 1991 (age 32)	0	El Salvador
Gabriel Vélez	Back row	(1997-07-10) 10 July 1997 (age 26)	0	VRAC
Nicolás Herreros	Scrum-half	(1990-01-23) 23 January 1990 (age 34)	3	Aparejadores
Zee Mkhabela	Scrum-half	(1994-10-15) 15 October 1994 (age 29)	0	VRAC
Facundo Munilla	Scrum-half	(1995-05-16) 16 May 1995 (age 28)	24	El Salvador
Nicolás Rocaries	Scrum-half	(2000-03-30) 30 March 2000 (age 24)	0	Aparejadores
Sam Katz	Fly-half	(1990-09-07) 7 September 1990 (age 33)	0	El Salvador
Baltazar Taibo	Fly-half	(1997-01-30) 30 January 1997 (age 27)	3	VRAC
Nathan de Thierry	Fly-half	(1994-02-14) 14 February 1994 (age 30)	2	VRAC
Martin du Toit	Fly-half	(1989-06-27) 27 June 1989 (age 34)	0	El Salvador
Alejandro Alonso	Centre	(1998-07-21) 21 July 1998 (age 25)	1	VRAC
David Barrios	Centre	(1999-05-02) 2 May 1999 (age 24)	0	El Salvador
Álvar Gimeno	Centre	(1995-12-15) 15 December 1995 (age 28)	23	VRAC
Juan Diego Zabalegui	Centre	(1991-12-26) 26 December 1991 (age 32)	0	Aparejadores
Miguel Lainz	Wing	(1994-11-02) 2 November 1994 (age 29)	0	VRAC
Andrés Masuyama	Wing	(1998-07-16) 16 July 1998 (age 25)	0	Aparejadores
Pedro Luis de la Lastra	Wing	(1995-12-05) 5 December 1995 (age 28)	23	VRAC
Pablo Rascón	Wing	(1999-07-21) 21 July 1999 (age 24)	0	Aparejadores
Franco Velarde	Wing	(1994-11-04) 4 November 1994 (age 29)	0 6	El Salvador
Jean-Yves Zebango	Wing	(1993-05-03) 3 May 1993 (age 30)	N/A	El Salvador
J. W. Bell	Fullback	(1990-01-18) 18 January 1990 (age 34)	4	VRAC
Tomás Carrió	Fullback	(1989-03-10) 10 March 1989 (age 35)	0	Aparejadores
Federico Castiglioni	Fullback	(1990-08-10) 10 August 1990 (age 33)	28	Aparejadores