Lourdes Alameda: 'I lost the will to talk or leave my home, but I have zero regrets'

Lourdes Alameda Garcia-Moreno. This is the full name of the Spain’s Leona, who has experienced the greatest heights of the women’s game in Spain, but stared into the sporting abyss when her country failed to qualify for 2021 World Cup, and then when dealing with this grief was sidelined for nine months with a serious neck injury.

One of Spain’s most experienced players with 37 caps, reflects on this period with brutal honesty:  “We poured our souls and sacrificed our bodies and well-being to qualify for the 2021 World Cup, and unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our mission. It sent us to a dark place. It shattered our world.

“I felt empty, deprived of happiness, and helpless. And you know what broke me even more? To know it was the last time that I was going to share the same locker room with some teammates who had been by my side since the 2010s. Isabel Rico, Marga Rodriguez, Maika Brust, Paula Medin and Saoia Jaurena, all my friends, and all of them were retiring. They were my support. It was layer upon layer of sadness and grief.”

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025

Alameda, who first got involved with the sport in 2009, had lived through several great moments for her country, having played in two previous World Cups, the Sevens World Series and held the Rugby Europe Championship trophy aloft multiple times. However, in 2021, life made a gruelling tackle attempt to throw her to the ground, but she kept on striving through the hard times.

“I went into lockdown mode for a couple of months until the 2021 Women’s Rugby Europe Championship started. Then we saw a new generation with the desire to take Spain to the next level. They wanted to play by our side and take the mantle. I felt re-energised. It was a new beginning and a new era.”

Spain would go on to contest WXV3 in 2o23, winning the competition the following year and qualifying for England 2025. But the road towards their comeback wasn’t an easy one.

“2022 was a particularly hard year, especially for the most experienced players in the team. It was like a hard reset, and we needed to rebuild the team. I can only speak for myself, but it was hard to go on a tour to South Africa with a team mainly composed of newcomers. We only had two camps before the tour. They were talented, yes, but they were taking their first steps in the high-performance system. But those were the cards given to us.

“In 2023 I got injured after a ruck, and the following day I couldn’t move my head. However, I kept playing and featured against Italy and the Netherlands. What happened after was almost like a nightmare, as I was told I had contracted a cervical radiculopathy. I had to go to the hospital for two months.

“I had lost the will to talk or leave my home, and I was on the verge of giving up and going back home, until Romain Weil came into my life. He helped me recover, and I was able to make a comeback nine months after my last game. I had to dig deep and believe I could do it and overcome one of the biggest ordeals of my life.”

Alameda became one of Spain’s leaders and one of the central faces of the Leonas resurgence. With the World Cup perfume already in the air, the lock reveals what she would like for Spain to achieve in England this summer.

“I want us to be a dynamic side, packed with speed, agility and unpredictability. We have to create something out of every opportunity. We deserve to be happy and to enjoy the World Cup experience. We deserve to be here amongst the best. We will show the world who the Leonas are and how we play the game.”

Alameda earned her first cap in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, playing the final 20 minutes in Spain’s victory over the Netherlands and is now set to take part in her third Rugby World Cup.

The 33-year-old is enjoying her role in the team and sharing her knowledge and experience with talented young guns such as Claudia Peña-Hidalgo, Alba Capell, Ana Peralta, Clara Piquero and Léa Ducher.

And in all her years of experience, a change of position was a pivotal point in her 15s career. “I was a centre when I started! I wasn’t the fastest player, but I could tackle. Be it in my club or college team, I played as a 12 or 13.

“I was with the sevens national team in 2014, and Ricardo Martinena, who was with the XVs, saw me training and said, ‘This one isn’t a centre! She is a lock!’. We had an honest conversation, and they said that I could play in the XVs as a lock or would eventually lose my place in the sevens team, because the new girls were faster and quicker than I.

“It was an easy decision in the end. I was a lock now… with four months to go until the World Cup!”

With the help of the Spanish staff, Lourdes Alameda learned how to scrum, jump in the lineout and do the extra (and invisible) work bestowed upon the forwards. She made serious progress and started in several games in that 2014 World Cup campaign, a campaign she won’t ever forget.

“It was incredible. Like everything in life, there were good and bad things. We faced England and Canada in our pool, who ended up being the two finalists! I just didn’t want the experience to end.

“My parents and sister have always been by my side. Yes, they said in the beginning, ‘Study, because rugby won’t be able to feed you!’, but that’s parents being parents. They went to France to watch me play for the national team in the 2014 World Cup. My father could only speak a few words of French, but that didn’t stop them from going. They are always there, and they have been vital for my career.

“The day rugby came into my life, it became my first priority. And I have zero regrets about it. There were dark and bitter moments, but I never stopped loving it for a single second.”

With such passion and pride of wearing the red of Spain, Alameda will be looking to secure her spot on the plane to England come August with England recently announcing the Red Roses will play a warm up match against the Leonas at Leicester’s Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday 2nd August, only 20 days out from the start of the 2025 Rugby World Cup.