Juan Arzuaga

Rugby career

While studying in Britain, Arzuaga stood out on the rugby fields, especially in Northumberland and Durham counties, in the north of England. He was a very talented athlete and this is confirmed by the chronicles of the English newspapers that reported on him from November 1898, when he had just turned 18, until the spring of 1902. The first account of him playing an official match is for North Durham against Sunderland (which had two future internationals) in February 1901 at Ashbrooke ground, which ended in a 31–3 loss, with Arzuaga scoring the three penalty points for his club. In his last season with the club in 1901–02, he received high praise, especially for his powerful and magnificent kick and for his success in converting tries into goals. In November, he scored two tries in a victory against Durham School, one of them superbly taken from the 25-yard line. In December, he scored the only try in a narrow defeat to the tough coal miners' team, Hamsteels. In January 1902, he was decisive in a 5–5 draw against the powerful Northern of Northumberland, scoring all the points and achieving a try by taking the ball from the defender and crossing the line at full speed. Arzuaga then moved to Rockliff (now Whitley Bay Rockcliff RFC), probably because he was hired after these impressive performances, with Rockliff being at that time one of the main teams in the north of England. In many of his matches with the club, he played on one wing, while Englishman…

Arzuaga participated in the 1911 Copa del Rey as both a player and a referee, winning the cup as the former and overseeing one match as the latter, a quarterfinal clash between CD Español and Academia de Infantería on 10 April, which ended in a 6–0 victory to Español.

As a coach, Arzuaga managed Athletic Bilbao from 3 December 1921 until 20 March 1922.

Juan Arzuaga was born in Bilbao on 3 September 1880, and was baptized on the following day, in the Church of San Nicolás, Bilbao in the Biscay capital. As a child, Arzuaga studied in England for four years, between 1898 and 1902, appearing in the 1901 census in Gateshead, south of the Tyne and in County Durham. According to the data, he was a naval engineering student and lived with a family in the area, so it is therefore very likely that he was undertaking training at one of the shipyards on the Tyne and Wear. Arzuaga then moved to Saxony, Germany, to study Mechanical Engineering at the Mittweida technical school, doing so between 1902 and 1904.