2016/17 · Special

A shirt that never reached the shops. Las Leonas play in red, but once a season, in the Partido de las Estrellas Iberdrola, the national side faces a select XV of the best players in the Liga Iberdrola wearing a shirt of its own, green and white hoops in the colours of the sponsor that keeps Spanish women's rugby alive. This is the one from the first edition, in spring 2017 at Pozuelo de Alarcón, closing the 2016/17 season. Joma, V-neck with green trim, red lion and "España Rugby" in gold, Iberdrola on the chest and a cracked 25 on the back. Only the players who wore it own one.

It belonged to a second-row forward the national side called up for one precise reason: for years she was the best lineout organiser in the league, a reader of the game and an elite jumper, the kind of player you pick to run the touchline set piece. Tall and slight, she paid for it in the tackle, which is why she collected more training camps than official caps. She prefers to stay unnamed. It comes from the Leonas' finest year: European champions in Madrid in October 2016, Scotland eliminated in November, the World Cup in Ireland in August 2017.

Here at Hoopster, this is the shirt Las Leonas wore just once a year, and it came from the hands of the one who ran the lineout.