Jáurena had already done the math: this is the last rugby season. What are the things, the greeting may come before your will and in an undesired way, as the ASB women’s team retired from the Elite level by the management on 17 November to denounce their conditions after planting the players in a game. We said a little earlier to the diocese; by closing this article no solution has yet been given to the matter. The time for Jáurena to take off her boots and immerse herself fully between the numbers is approaching.

Handball was your first sport, but then you chose rugby. Why?

In rugby, I really feel like myself. In any case, I have always said: if I had to abandon rugby and choose another sport, it would be a handball. Both are team sports and contact is a basic component. But there is one thing that makes rugby special: when you collide with the adversary, you always need two or three team members, especially on the stand. In handball, the contacts are predominantly mental.

He started playing rugby at the age of sixteen, at first with the boys. How does it remember its beginnings?

I started in the good era of rugby. Today, there are girls starting to play at six or eight years old. Before, though, things were different: some of my seniors started in college, notice. I did the test at Baztan, with the boys, because there is no group of girls. We got together about ten girls and we couldn't play a game there: only mixed teams can be formed until the age of sixteen. We could only train and eventually decided to go to Pamplona.

In the middle of adolescence, did it help you develop rugby as a person?

That's right. Everything met: I was opened many doors, I met many people with hobbies similar to mine… They are difficult ages, your identity is being built and it is very important to feel that you do things well and that your work is valued. The experience of Pamplona allowed me to work with confidence. I went to a new place, to practice a new sport with new people, and that step I said, not my parents.

When did you feel I could walk around rugby?

A member of the team told me that it was very easy. He didn't think much of it, but things were slowly changing. Because when I put up a bloodletting in preparation, my game improved a lot and enjoyed a lot. I was very encouraged by the knowledge of this development. When I made the effort, I always received the prize. I had quite soon the opportunity to play in the Euskadi selection, even debut in Primera División.

Getxo gave him the opportunity to play the highest category in Spain. And then he worked in New Zealand for a year. How did you get the chance to go there?

There the rugby culture is very strong and his dream was to play there. This option was always in the head. One day I talked to a New Zealand acquaintance and explained the conditions to be there. Because it is one thing to go on vacation and another to make a long stay. The permission was obtained through a draw and I asked for it without notifying anyone, thinking that I would not be lucky. For he touched me, and convinced of his own, I went to him. I had just finished college, and I still didn't start work. It was a good time.

What was the experience like?

Great, I played with some local team players and against others. Rugby lives in a very different way, it's known all over the world and you can see it anywhere. They took my hands open in a club there and, despite having a very high level, they offered me a lot of possibilities to play. I learned and enjoyed it a lot.

Returning home, he started playing in Baiona, in the highest category of France. Is there a lot of difference with the Spanish league?

The French league is something else. Baiona's girls had just climbed to the top category and the coach offered me the chance to come back because I had played a season earlier there. I've always had to take the car to train, and Bayona's was the perfect choice: I could play pretty close to home and in a much stronger league. It was an enabling environment, with some of the team members I knew. There was also the possibility of speaking in Basque. It has been very good for me to play in the French league, because the level of contact and the demand for training is higher. I've been doing my site little by little, and although I'm not from here, I feel at home.

A few weeks ago, the conflict broke out: they decided not to go to a party to protest against the club’s bad conditions.

It is true that the club gives us little support, but I do not agree with the way in which the complaint has been made, and I prefer not to talk about it.

In general, under what conditions do you operate in the French league?

Today many clubs pay something to their players, but the league is not professional. Nobody lives just from rugby. The exception is those who play in the French team, as the Federation hires them half a day. These girls live with that contract and what the club gives them. But under no circumstances do they receive the money from the kids. Your league has a huge force. The difference is enormous, as happens in Spain in football. At club level, I have never received money for playing rugby, that is, I have always had to work to be able to continue playing rugby.

You're a math teacher. You have to solve every day a difficult problem to reconcile work, sport and personal life.

It's hard, I'm not going to lie to you. I have to work eight hours a day and then three times a week I have to go to train Baiona. In addition, every day you have to do gym work and other exercises. Outside of this I hardly have time left, and by chance you have to make sacrifices. Last year I was training only six months thanks to a project from the Spanish team. And I clearly saw the difference: if you get good resting and structure your workouts well, your performance improves every month.

However, all the sacrifices that need to be made are worthwhile. If you don't, you've left rugby before.

It's paid out expensive, but it's worth it. When you're in an environment that makes you feel good as a person, why leave it? I've had to cut a lot of time spent on my family and friends, but rugby is something you have to live on now. Then I won't have it. That's the mindset I've had in these years. What you really know knows me knows what sports give me.

What exactly has rugby given you over all these years?

Rugby has helped me enormously to get to know me and has given me a lot of experience. It has made me happy. More than with victories or trophies, I have special moments lived with colleagues in the team.

You collide again and again with each other, and yet the rugby players compete with great sportsmanship. The third time is also there, to talk to the opponents after the matches.

Within the field there are many situations in which you have to act with violence, and that unites you both with the team and with the rivals. From the outside it seems like a very violent sport, but the hardness unites us. In the end, contact is one of the basic components of this sport and we know how we should act when we collide.

Let us be clear: rugby is not the same thing as football.

The ball is the same shape, but they have nothing to do with it. The laws are very different: for example, in American football you can move the ball to any place and make anybody plaited, whether or not you have the ball in your hands.

What characteristics do you need to be a good rugby?

Sacrifice and constancy, as in all sports. On the other hand, I need a strong physicist, because I act in the baseman. There are very different profiles in the group. Those of us who face it have to make more effort. Those behind must work skill and speed.

The last big challenge of your career was to qualify with the Spanish team for the next World Championship, and it has not been possible. Has failure accelerated the decision to withdraw?

Before I was clear that I would continue with the Spanish team until the end of the World Championship. I thought I would leave it all at once, but going home it has been impossible for me to accept it. When you've internalized for many years certain habits and routines, changing everything suddenly is very hard. So, I've retrained, and it looks like I'm going to play this season. There's been a lot of player out there, and I get a lot of young people, and I'm going to go on with the intent of helping.

You're going to take off the hobby, but the trade is there. The vacuum will not be total.

I've spent a lot of time on rugby, but continuing outside life. I haven't left everything. I have teammates who have only played rugby in the team and now, when I get home, they have nothing. And that's really hard. You're 30 years old and you're out of work or you're out of school. And, above all, without any project. I, at least, have my job and I live with my partner. I have a pretty built life. However, my life will change radically. What's coming is going to be good, but it's painful that you leave behind what you've lived with passion. It is a process that requires internal elaboration. When you're in sport, the mind is very important, but the future also needs to be prepared, being aware that this will end at some point.