With the Women’s Rugby Europe Championship 2025 done and dusted, it is time to pick the 23 players who rocked the show and made each clash more spectacular and intense. Our selection was based on player performance, data and overall impact in how each team operated.
FRONT ROW
Spain offers the loosehead Gemma Silva and hooker Cristina Blanco to our Team of the Tournament front-row, with the Dutch colossus Sydney de Weijer earning the tighthead role.
What can we expect from the selected front row? Thumping powerful carries, relentless scrummaging work. The Silva-De Weijer combo has the power to move mountains and were certainly one of the best players in the player clashes of the Spain vs Netherlands affair.
Cristina Blanco always came from the bench, but the experienced Ealing hooker added cohesion and pin-point accuracy in her lineout work.
LOCKS
Another bombastic duo, Lourdes Alameda and Inger Jongerius. Both were sensational for Spain and the Netherlands, putting their legs to good use in every carry and tackle.
Jongerius was a daunting view for those who found themselves in her way, wrapping up the Women’s Rugby Europe Championship with a 95% gain line rate.
Alameda's cunningness added an extra layer of potency to the Spanish set-piece, wheeling the maul with expertise and intercepting more than six opposition’s lineouts during the campaign.
LOOSE FORWARDS
Isa Prins continues to climb up the golden standard ladder, and her performances injected potency into the Netherlands in attack and in defence. Prins combined well her high impact carries with swift handling skills, emerging as a full-on menace in the tournament.
Spain’s Ana Peralta made her presence felt in the breakdown, poaching and retaking several balls, providing a lifeline for her team when the opposition seemed ready to reach the in-goal area.
To lead the whole pack, we had to pick Linde van der Velden, Netherlands captain and one of the fiercest competitors on the pitch, finishing at the top of the dominant tacklers ranking (8). The number eight energised her Dutch teammates to fully believe that it was possible to bring the title home, which they almost achieved.
SCRUM-HALF AND FLY-HALF
For the creative pairing, Portugal’s Clarisse Augusto and Spain’s Amalia Argudo earn the starting spots, but it wasn’t an easy decision to make, as Esmee Ligtvoet and Pleuni Kievit also deserved to be in the mix.
Augusto made her debut for the Lobas in round 1 and lit up the show, pulling a series of vibrant plays that boosted Portugal’s chances of scoring their first-ever try against Spain.
While Kievit finished at the top of the point scorers ranking, Argudo was pivotal to Spain’s title retention, not only because of the Stade Toulousain’s impressive kicking skills but also due to her in-game knowledge, masterfully puppeteering the opposition's defence to do her bidding.
CENTRES
There’s no better centre pairing than the Leonas Zahia Pérez and Alba Vinuesa, two gifted ballers who created a steady attacking platform for their side. However, their excellence wasn’t just while on attack, as both were crucial to shutting down more than a couple of threatening Dutch plays to win the game for Spain.
Pérez completed another Women’s REC with six clean breaks and nine defenders beaten, in what can already be a formality for the 23-year-old.
OUTSIDE BACKS
Between Kika Mulling, Gaya van Nifterik and Daniela Correia, thirteen tries were created, with the outside back trio scoring themselves six times. Mulling was one of the sensations of this year’s Women’s REC, pulverising the opposition thanks to her speed, pace and agility, looking almost like she was gliding when the ball fell into her direction.
Van Nifterik made it to the whitewash once, with her astonishing calmness under the high ball working well for the Netherlands.
Portugal’s captain Daniela Correia had a brilliant campaign at all levels, managing with expertise Portugal’s offensive strategy while giving some relief to her defence through her kicking game.
POWER BENCH
Front row: Nicky Dix, Inês Ventura Marques and Laura Delgado Dueñas
A young comer and two veterans of the game to give an extra nudge to our pack in the second half. Laura Delgado’s expertise played a role in the first two games of the campaign, whilst Dix and Marques had an overall positive Women’s REC campaign.
Utility Forwards: Ana Fernandes and Maja Meuller
Few players can tackle continuously like Ana Fernandes, immediately getting back up to help her team bounce back from any incoming threat. Maja Meuller was a shining light for Sweden, leading by example and putting her body on the line.
Backline: Esmee Ligtvoet, Pleuni Kievit and Claudia Peña Hidalgo
Pleuni Kievit's skills off the tee added 30 points for the Netherlands, with the Oranje fly-half donning the playmaker role as well.
Esmee Ligtvoet was consistently excellent in her scrum-half duties, finessing her team’s phase-by-phase play.
And we couldn’t wrap up the Team of the Year without adding a bit of Claudia Peña Hidalgo's magic. The talented utility back was a firecracker at times, painting a spectacular rugby canvas to boost Spain’s chances of winning the title.
By Francisco Isaac
