The home side galloped to a 34-5 victory but the final score-line doesn’t do Wales justice.
Luke Treharne levelled the score at 5-5 before he was harshly yellow carded. Long striding Tobias Sainz-Trapaga romped over immediately and when a knock-down by Spain went unpunished, the home side edged 17-5 ahead at the break when Manu Moreno scored after the halftime hooter.
Three second half tries by Spain ensured the home fans had something to shout about but Pugh was encouraged by his side’s efforts, particularly after Wales overcame Germany 27-14 earlier in the day to reach the 9th place play-off.
Cole Swannack scored his first try for his country but the physical Germans hit back twice before Owen Jenkins’ try tied matters up 12-12 at the break.
With the game on a knife-edge, Lloyd Lewis powered over to ease nerves but the Germans refused to go away quietly and scored to reduce the arrears to just two points. However Arthur Lennon and Lloyd Evans put the result beyond doubt for a thoroughly deserved victory.
In yesterday’s only game against Canada, Wales succumbed 26-7 to miss out on a coveted quarter-final but Pugh was impressed on how his side bounced back today.
“It’s nice that we are actually frustrated as it shows how far we have come in a short space of time,” he said.
“We have to learn to back up our performances with consistency and show we can go again because we ground out some real promising wins against Kenya and Germany so it’s those moments we have to learn to fulfil.
“Against Canada, looking after the ball and possession and against Spain a few things didn’t go our way within the game and it’s a case of when a team goes two scores ahead we’ve still got opportunities to get back into it. We didn’t quite manage to do that as a little bit of inexperience shone through.
“But everything the boys have done has been outstanding and I’m proud of their efforts really.”
“The boys are pretty battered and bruised to be fair as there were some big shifts from the boys, the ice machine is going to be absolutely on full power for the next two or three days while the boys recover as we move to Seville.
“We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be and there are reasons to be optimistic. We’re frustrated with results which when we take a step back the reality is we’ve only been together with two weeks prep. Those frustrations are from how competitive and how far we’ve come really. We’ve got something to build on for next week in Seville.”
Malaga Sevens Results
Wales 10-38 France
Wales 19-14 Kenya
Wales 7-26 Canada
Wales v Fiji (Bye)
Wales 27-14 Germany
Wales 5-34 Spain
