Saturday 6th August, Vitoria-Gasteiz

OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ beat MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – MERINO II 22-13

Aimar Olaizola and Mikel Beroiz, are inexperienced as a pair, given the latter’s only recent transfer to Asegarce, but they hit the ground running in the first Virgen Blanca semi final. They were always ahead on the scoreboard, and gave their rivals, Juan Martinez de Irujo and David Merino little look in. The gloss was taken off the match as a contest by the problems experienced by Merino with his right calf, which prevented him from playing to the best of his ability, but this is not to devalue the class of the winners’ performance. Olaizola put Irujo to the sword, hitting with brutality and ruthless precision on his way to thirteen winners in the match. Irujo, whose attacks were almost always rebutted, managed to pass his rivals only five times. Merino sought to keep the game from the forwards in order to protect his colleague from the onslaught, but it was to no avail, as the Asegarce pair sailed into the final. Merino for his part is expected to play again this week, as his injury, while impeding, proved to be a relatively minor strain.

Scoring sequence: 1-0, 1-1, 5-1, 5-4, 9-4, 9-5, 11-5, 11-6, 12-6, 12-9, 14-9, 14-10, 17-10, 17-11, 19-11, 19-13, 22-13

Winners/errors: Olaizola 13/4, Irujo 5/4, Beroiz 1/4, Merino 0/1

Duration: 81 minutes

Balls hit: 638