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Laura 'Bimba' Delgado Dueñas (born 4 July 1990) is a Spanish rugby union player. She plays as a Prop for the Spanish women's team internationally and recently joined English club, Harlequins, for the 2024–25 season of the Premiership Women's Rugby competition.
| Date of birth | 4 July 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Jerez de la Frontera, Spain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 93 kg (205 lb; 14 st 9 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rugby career
editBorn on in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, she grew up in a family of athletes who immediately pushed her towards the sport.[1] She practiced shot put until she was 18, when she was injured in a motorcycle accident. It was then that she discovered rugby on the advice of a friend, with the Cádiz club. She gave up athletics to the great displeasure of her parents and her coach. In addition, the Cádiz club only played 10-a-side rugby, so she had to go to Madrid to play fifteens.[1] Her build, leg strength and height earned her an immediate place in the front row.[1]
She got her nickname "Bimba" from her very first match for Cádiz. Every time she charged with the ball in her hand, the crowd would exclaim "bimba!", an onomatopoeia that could be translated as "boom".[1]
In 2014, she was injured and was not available for the World Cup. She made her international debut with the Spanish team the following year, against Netherlands.[1] In 2016, she joined Tarbes Pyrénées rugby in Elite 2. She captained the Spanish team at the 2017 Rugby World Cup in Ireland.[1]
In 2019, she signed with her first English club, Darlington Mowden Park Sharks.[2] The following season, she signed with Exeter Chiefs where she stayed for two seasons and won the 2022 Allianz Cup.[3][4]
In 2022, Spain having not qualified for the delayed Rugby World Cup, she decided to play in New Zealand; she sent a sports CV to the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union who agreed to host her while warning her that the Farah Palmer Cup players are not paid, and that she has no guarantee of having a place in the squad. Hawke's Bay won the Championship (the bottom division of the FPC) that year. She is the first European player to participate in a haka in Farah Palmer Cup.
Immediately after spending a season in New Zealand, she joined Gloucester-Hartpury where she won the 2022–23 Premier 15s season, facing her former club Exeter Chiefs in the final.[3][4]
In 2023–24, although she still played for Gloucester-Hartpury, she also turned out for the Iberians of Valencia, she played in two matches against Italian clubs, Zebre Parma and Benetton Treviso. Back at the club, she did not participate in the final phase of the championship in order to participate in the play-off match for the WXV against Wales in Cardiff. Her club coaches, Sean Lynn and Andrew Ford, came to see her specially and at the end of the match presented her with her PWR league champions medal and a jersey of the club.[3]
In 2024, she signed for Harlequins.[3][4] During the WXV, she announced her decision to retire from international football at the end of the competition, or after the World Cup if Spain qualified.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Laura 'Bimba' Delgado: 'I won't stop playing unless they retire me'". www.rugbypass.com. 2024-09-24. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
- ^ Harding, John (2021-02-18). "Delgado has sights set on World Cup". www.exeterchiefs.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
- ^ a b c d "Laura 'Bimba' Delgado to join Harlequins". www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk. July 2024. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
- ^ a b c "Harlequins sign a quartet of international players ahead of the new season". www.thepwr.com. October 2024. Retrieved 2024-10-10.