As captain of the Spanish team that did the unthinkable and beat favourites Samoa with the last play in the Olympic repechage final in Monaco last June, Pabloo Feijoo’s interview went down in rugby folklore.

Feijoo, fighting back the tears, spoke of what qualification for Rio 2016 meant to him and his country and now, 10 months on, he and Spain have another mountain to climb in Hong Kong this weekend.

“That interview was all over the place, a reward for 15 years of very hard work,” recalled Feijoo.

“Going to the Olympic Games is the biggest thing that can happen to a sportsman and to be able to represent my country there was incredible, being able to share it with the best sportspeople from around the world during three weeks is a wonderful memory.”

Life has moved on for Feijoo since Rio, although not from the game that has shaped his and his family’s life – his father Alfonso, a former international who coached Spain to RWC 1999 is currently President of the Federación Española de Rugby.

Having hung up his boots, Feijoo was appointed Spain sevens coach and he will be in charge of Los Leones as they look to win the World Rugby Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong and return to the series as a core team in 2017-18.

“After Rio, the Federation prioritised qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2019,” explained Feijoo.

A hard task

“Our player pool is thin and most of the players we had for sevens have moved to 15s. With the amount of activity at senior and U20 level it means we have been working to unearth new talent, giving them game time at tournaments and in training camps looking to the future.”

Spain, given their previous exploits, should be one of the teams to beat in the 12-team qualifier, but Feijoo knows that winning in Hong Kong has not always come easily for Los Leones.

“With a team that was fully professional we struggled, so with a young team that has been having four-day camps every month, the task is very hard. We will arrive after a couple of weeks of intense preparation. 

“I think with that we should be able to play good rugby – when we want to we can be quite unstoppable.”

Unlike the team he captained, this one will be new and untested at this level. As a player, Feijoo played for Spain’s sevens team for 15 years and most of the team had been together for about a decade before Rio and to secure that last spot they “played the tournament of our lives”.

Now on the other side of the touchline, Feijoo is enjoying life but knows the challenge of facing their Pool A opponents Papua New Guinea, Uruguay and Guyana will be a big one.

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“Every game will be hard. In sevens anything can happen and you must be at your best or any team can make life hard for you.”