Nickname(s) Los Teros Most caps Diego Magno (68) Top try scorer Diego Ormaechea (33) Union Uruguayan Rugby Union Location Uruguay Ground Estadio Charrúa | Emblem Southern lapwing Top scorer Federico Sciarra (261) Home stadium Estadio Charrúa Captain Juan Manuel Gaminara Head coach Esteban Meneses | |
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The national rugby union team of Uruguay is the representative side of Uruguay, governed by the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay. They have been playing international rugby since 1948. Their jersey is blue and black and they are known as Los Teros (Southern lapwing). They have qualified three times for the Rugby World Cup, in 1999, 2003 and most recently for the 2015 tournament. As of 8 August 2015 they are ranked 19th in the world.
Contents
- 1940s 1960s
- 1970s 1980s
- 1990s
- 2000present
- Overall record
- Current squad
- Most matches
- Most tries
- Most points
- Most matches as captain
- Notable All Times Players
- References
Uruguay won the South American Rugby Championship in 1981, the only time (pre-2014) that a team other than Argentina won the tournament. They came second on 19 occasions and third the remaining 9. As yet, Uruguay have never beaten Argentina in an official match between the two nations, despite some close results.
Their home stadium is Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo and holds up to 14,000 people.
1940s – 1960s
Uruguay made their official international debut in 1948, in a game against Chile, which Uruguay lost 21–3. Following their debut match, they return to competition in the Pan American Games, first against the more experienced Argentina, resulting in a 0–62 loss. Uruguay then faced Chile for the second time, defeating them by 8–3. The final match of the competition was a 17–10 win over Brazil. Uruguay thus became runners up in the first unofficial South American Rugby Championship.
Uruguay, after a four years hiatus, played Chile in 1956, who defeated them by 6–3. In 1958, they played for the first official South American Rugby Championship, in a pool of three countries. They first played Chile, this time losing by 9–34. The "Teros" met again Argentina, having another loss, this time by 3–50. Uruguay managed to defeat Peru (10–6) in the last game.
In 1960, Uruguay faced for the first time one of the powers of the Northern Hemisphere rugby, France XV, losing by 0–59 in Montevideo during a South American tour. Uruguay after this match entered their second South American Rugby Championship. They first won Brazil in a close game (11–8), losing then to Chile (5–28) and Argentina (3–36), in the closest result to then between both countries.
1970s – 1980s
The 1970s started off with a win over Paraguay in 1971, which was followed by a win and loss against Chile and a win against Brazil. They also played Argentina twice in the 1970s. However, they won all their matches except for those against Argentina, as well as losing one game against Chile and drawing another. However, the next game against Argentina, two years later in 1979, Uruguay came close to defeating the Pumas, going down by just three points, the final score being 19 to 16.
The 1980s started off with a 54 to 14 win over Paraguay, which resulted in a winning streak that was stopped by Argentina in 1983. In 1985, France visited Montevideo for a second time to play the Teros, beating the locals 34–6. Another short undefeated streak occurred over 1987/1989, which was broken by a 19 to 17 loss against Chile. This was followed by a sound loss to Argentina and loss to a new opponent, the United States Eagles.
1990s
The 1990s started off with wins against of Chile, Brazil and Paraguay. This was followed by more wins over their traditional opponents, though Uruguay still lost to Argentina, they also played Canada in a competitive 28–9 loss in 1995. Uruguay played some of the bigger nations such as Argentina, Canada and the United States, although the Canada and U.S. games were a lot closer than some of their previous encounters.
A huge success for them was qualifying for the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales. They won their pool fixture against Spain, Uruguay finished third in their pool.
2000–present
Uruguay came within 10 points of Argentina in 2001, and also played nations such as Italy in the same year. Uruguay won most of their matches against their traditional Americas opponents in the early 2000s. Later in 2002, Uruguay defeated Canada, winning 25–23. They followed this up with a 10–9 win over the United States. They again qualified for the 2003 World Cup. They won their pool fixture against Georgia 24–12.
Uruguay's qualification for the 2007 World Cup started in Americas Round 3a, where they were grouped with Argentina and Chile. After losing their first match 26–0 to Argentina, they defeated Chile 43–15 in Montevideo, which saw them enter Round 4. In round 4 they faced the United States, and Uruguay lost on aggregate, and moved onto the repechage round as Americas 4. Uruguay played Portugal in the repechage over two legs — losing the first in Lisbon and winning the second in Montevideo — but lost on aggregate points and failed to qualify.
Uruguay lost the 2011 Rugby World Cup qualification. Uruguay had won the 2009 South American Rugby Championship "A" by defeating Brazil and Chile at the Estadio Charrúa. Uruguay then lost to the United States 22–27 and 6–27. In the repechage, Uruguay defeated Kazakhstan 44–7, but in the battle for the 20th and final spot at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Uruguay tied Romania at home 21–21 and lost 12–32 in Bucharest.
During the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying, Uruguay won the 2013 South American Rugby Championship "A", getting wins at the Estadio Charrúa against Brazil (58–7) and Chile (23–9). In March 2014, Uruguay faced the United States in a NACRA-CONSUR playoff for the last Americas qualification spot. Uruguay tied the home leg 27–27, but lost the away leg 32–13. Uruguay then moved to the repechage, where it defeated Hong Kong 28–3 at the Estadio Charrúa, to face Russia for the 20th and final spot at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Uruguay qualified for the 2015 Rugby World Cup by defeating Russia by an aggregate score of 57–49 in the two-game series, winning the second game at home 36–27 in front of 14,000 fans at the Charrua Stadium.
Overall record
Up until the 4 December 2012, Uruguay has won 81 of their 175 matches played, a win percentage of 46.29%.
Uruguay has lost all official matches versus Argentina, but has a positive record versus their other South American rivals: Chile (25 wins, 13 losses, 1 draw), Paraguay (20 wins, 1 draw) and Brazil (16 wins, 3 losses).
Regarding tier 2 teams, Uruguay has positive records with Portugal, neutral records with Spain, and negative records with United States, Canada, Georgia, Romania and Russia.
Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Uruguay national XV at test level up until 7 March 2017.
Current squad
Uruguay's initial squad for the 2017 Americas Rugby Championship.
1 Manuel Diana, Lucas Durán, Martín Espiga, Nicolás Freitas and Ignacio García were call called up to the squad ahead of the second round game against Argentina XV.
2 Juan Manuel Gaminara, Mario Sagario and Andrés Vilaseca returned to the squad after recovering from injury, while Lorenzo Surraco joined the squad ahead of the third round clash with Brazil.
3 Ahead of round 4, Gastón Mieres returned to the team after recovering from a shoulder injury.
Head Coach: Esteban Meneses
Most matches
Last updated: Uruguay vs Chile, 4 March 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most tries
Last updated: Uruguay vs Chile, 4 March 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most points
Last updated: Uruguay vs Canada, 25 February 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most matches as captain
Last updated: Uruguay vs Canada, 25 February 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only.