Uruguay national rugby union team

Uruguay

Nickname(s)

Los Teros

Emblem

Southern lapwing

Union

Unión de Rugby del Uruguay

Head coach

Esteban Meneses

Captain

Juan Manuel Gaminara

Most caps

Diego Magno (68)

Top scorer

Federico Sciarra (261)

Top try scorer

Diego Ormaechea (33)

Home stadium

Estadio Charrúa

First colours

Second colours

Third colours

World Rugby ranking

Current

21 (as of 15 February 2016)

Highest

15 (2005)

Lowest

23 (2012)

First international

Uruguay 3–21 Chile
(5 August 1948)

Biggest win

Uruguay 102–6 Paraguay
(14 May 2011)

Biggest defeat

South Africa 134–3 Uruguay
(11 June 2005)

World Cup

Appearances

3 (First in 1999)

Best result

Pool stage, 1999, 2003, 2015

Website

www.uru.org.uy

2015 Rugby World Cup repechage qualifier match between Uruguay and Russia

2015 Rugby World Cup warm-up match between Uruguay and Argentina XV

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.

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.

History

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 southern lapwing, emblem of the Uruguayan National Rugby Team

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.^[1]

Uruguay claimed three wins and two losses at the 2016 Americas Rugby Championship, but ranked fourth out of six because they only scored two bonus points. In 2017 the team also claimed three wins and two losses, finishing third.

Record

Overall record

World Rugby Rankings
Top 30 rankings as of 21 August 2017^[2]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		New Zealand	95.21
2		England	90.14
3		Ireland	85.39
4	1	South Africa	84.51
5	1	Australia	84.21
6		Scotland	82.47
7		Wales	81.73
8		France	79.63
9	1	Fiji	79.48
10	1	Argentina	79.15
11		Japan	73.79
12		Georgia	73.41
13		Tonga	71.72
14		Italy	71.00
15		Romania	70.27
16		Samoa	69.67
17		United States	65.84
18		Uruguay	63.15
19		Spain	63.15
20		Russia	63.13
21		Namibia	61.40
22		Germany	59.78
23		Canada	59.47
24		Hong Kong	58.85
25		Kenya	57.36
26		Portugal	57.26
27		Belgium	56.94
28		Chile	54.76
29		Brazil	54.50
30		Switzerland	53.63
*Change from the previous week
Uruguay's historical rankings

Source: World Rugby - Graph updated to 20 February 2017^[2]

Up until the 4 December 2012, Uruguay has won 81 of their 175 matches played, a win percentage of 46.29%.^[3]

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 9 July 2017.^[4]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Argentina	41	0	41	0	0.00%	413	1720	−1310
Argentina XV	9	1	8	0	11.11%	110	386	−276
Argentina Jaguars	1	0	1	0	0.00%	7	63	−56
Australia	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	65	−62
Belgium	1	1	0	0	100.00%	39	13	+26
Brazil	25	23	2	0	92.00%	893	253	+640
Canada	10	2	8	0	20.00%	142	293	−151
Chile	50	38	11	1	76.00%	1194	768	+426
Emerging Ireland	3	0	3	0	0.00%	43	126	−83
Emerging Italy	3	1	2	0	33.33%	67	70	−3
England	2	0	2	0	0.00%	16	171	−155
Fiji	2	0	2	0	0.00%	39	86	−47
Fiji XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	24	−21
Fiji Warriors	2	0	2	0	0.00%	44	72	−28
France XV	2	0	2	0	0.00%	6	95	−89
Georgia	5	2	3	0	40.00%	72	85	−13
Germany	1	0	1	0	0.00%	21	24	−3
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	100.00%	28	3	+25
Italy	3	0	3	0	0.00%	25	92	−67
Japan	3	1	2	0	33.33%	32	88	−56
Kazakhstan	1	1	0	0	100.00%	44	7	+37
Morocco	2	1	1	0	50.00%	36	24	+12
Namibia	1	1	0	0	100.00%	23	12	+11
New Zealand XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	64	−61
Paraguay	26	25	0	1	96.15%	1322	238	+1084
Peru	1	1	0	0	100.00%	10	6	+4
Portugal	10	7	3	0	70.00%	234	142	+92
Romania	8	0	7	1	0.00%	85	226	−141
Russia	8	4	4	0	50.00%	183	189	−6
Samoa	1	0	1	0	0.00%	13	60	−47
Scotland	1	0	1	0	0.00%	12	43	−31
Scotland A	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	27	−24
South Africa	3	0	3	0	0.00%	12	245	−233
South Africa President's XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	9	37	−28
Spain	11	6	5	0	54.55%	211	156	+55
United States	17	2	14	1	11.76%	266	505	−239
Venezuela	1	1	0	0	100.00%	92	8	+84
Wales	1	0	1	0	0.00%	9	54	−45
Total	261	119	138	4	45.59%	5768	6579	−811

World Cup record

World Cup record								World Cup Qualification record
Year	Finished	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Pts F	Pts A	P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Not invited							—
1991	Did not enter							Did not enter
1995	Did not qualify							3	2	0	1	91	28
1999	Pool Stage	3	1	0	2	42	97	9	6	0	3	209	188
2003	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	56	255	6	3	0	3	115	144
2007	Did not qualify							6	2	0	4	86	140
2011	Did not qualify							6	3	1	2	194	107
2015	Pool Stage	4	0	0	4	30	226	8	6	1	1	239	146
Total	3/6	11	2	0	9	128	578	38	22	2	14	934	753

Current squad

Uruguay's squad for the 2017 World Rugby Nations Cup.

Head Coach: Esteban Meneses

Caps updated: 7 March 2017

Player	Position	Date of Birth (Age)	Caps	Club/province
Espiga, MartínMartín Espiga	Hooker	(1985-02-21) 21 February 1985	35	Old Christians
Gattas, FacundoFacundo Gattas	Hooker	(1995-07-02) 2 July 1995	18	Lobos
Kessler, GermánGermán Kessler	Hooker	(1994-07-01) 1 July 1994	26	Los Cuervos
Benítez, MatíasMatías Benítez	Prop	(1988-05-06) 6 May 1988	14	Champagnat
Echeverriá, JuanJuan Echeverriá	Prop	(1991-10-09) 9 October 1991	27	Old Christians
Sagario, MarioMario Sagario	Prop	(1986-06-29) 29 June 1986	63	Carrasco Polo
Sanguinetti, MateoMateo Sanguinetti	Prop	(1992-07-26) 26 July 1992	39	Los Cuervos
Dotti, IgnacioIgnacio Dotti	Lock	(1994-08-18) 18 August 1994	21	Los Cuervos
Leindekar, ManuelManuel Leindekar	Lock	(1997-04-23) 23 April 1997	3	Oyonnax
Magno, DiegoDiego Magno	Lock	(1989-04-27) 27 April 1989	71	MVCC
Gaminara, Juan ManuelJuan Manuel Gaminara (c)	Flanker	(1989-05-01) 1 May 1989	42	Old Boys
Hernández, SantiagoSantiago Hernández	Flanker	(1992-05-18) 18 May 1992	4	Carrasco Polo
Lamanna, FrancoFranco Lamanna	Flanker	(1991-10-05) 5 October 1991	37	Pro Recco
Soto, GonzaloGonzalo Soto	Flanker	(1995-02-10) 10 February 1995	14	Carrasco Polo
Diana, ManuelManuel Diana	Number 8	(1996-03-04) 4 March 1996	3	Old Christians
Nieto, AlejandroAlejandro Nieto	Number 8	(1988-01-07) 7 January 1988	50	Champagnat
Arata, SantiagoSantiago Arata	Scrum-half	(1996-09-02) 2 September 1996	17	Old Christians
Lijtenstein, GuillermoGuillermo Lijtenstein	Scrum-half	(1990-09-14) 14 September 1990	35	Trébol de Paysandú
Ormaechea, AgustínAgustín Ormaechea	Scrum-half	(1991-03-08) 8 March 1991	32	Stade Montois
Albanell, GermanGerman Albanell	Fly-half	(1989-01-06) 6 January 1989	11	Old Boys
Berchesi, FelipeFelipe Berchesi	Fly-half	(1991-04-12) 12 April 1991	22	US Dax
Cat, Juan ManuelJuan Manuel Cat	Centre	(1996-09-06) 6 September 1996	10	Old Boys
Corte, Agustín DellaAgustín Della Corte	Centre	(1997-09-11) 11 September 1997	0	Trébol de Paysandú
Vilaseca, AndrésAndrés Vilaseca	Centre	(1991-05-08) 8 May 1991	31	Old Boys
Gibernau, GastónGastón Gibernau	Wing	(1993-06-15) 15 June 1993	9	Old Boys
Leivas, LeandroLeandro Leivas	Wing	(1988-07-06) 6 July 1988	59	Old Christians
Mieres, GastónGastón Mieres	Fullback	(1989-10-05) 5 October 1989	48	Lobos
Silva, RodrigoRodrigo Silva	Fullback	(1992-11-02) 2 November 1992	37	Carrasco Polo

Individual all-time records

Most matches

#	Player	Pos	Tenure	Mat	Start	Sub	Pts	Tries	Won	Lost	Draw	%
1	Diego Magno	Flanker	2008-	68	53	15	40	8	28	38	2	42.64
2	Rodrigo Sanchez	Prop	1996-2009	67	58	9	25	5	26	41	0	38.80
3	Carlos Arboleya	Hooker	2004-	64	39	25	20	4	26	37	1	41.40
4	Mario Sagario	Prop	2006-	60	43	17	5	1	19	39	2	33.33
5	Diego Aguirre	Fly-half	1992-2007	58	58	0	115	7	23	35	0	39.65
6	Leandro Leivas	Wing	2008-	56	45	11	85	17	18	36	2	33.92
7	Nicolas Grille	Flanker	1996-2007	54	43	11	40	8	23	31	0	42.59
7	Diego Ormaechea	Number 8	1979-1999	54	51	3	151	33	29	25	0	53.70
9	Diego Lamelas	Hooker	1992-2006	52	37	15	30	6	23	29	0	44.23
10	Pedro Vecino	Centre	1990-2003	51	51	0	50	10	25	26	0	49.01

Last updated: Uruguay vs Chile, 4 March 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only. ^[5]

Most tries

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Start	Sub	Pts	Tries
1	Diego Ormaechea	Number 8	1979-1999	54	51	3	151	33
2	Leandro Leivas	Wing	2008-	56	45	11	85	17
3	Alfonso Cardoso	Centre	1995-2003	38	35	3	67	13
4	Federico Sciarra	Flanker	1990-1999	39	37	2	261	12
5	Santiago Gibernau	Wing	2009–2016	37	34	3	50	10
	Marcelo Nicola	Wing	1989-1995	21	17	4	172	10
	Pedro Vecino	Centre	1990-2003	51	51	0	50	10
8	4 players on 9 tries

Last updated: Uruguay vs Chile, 4 March 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only. ^[5]

Most points

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Pts	Tries	Conv	Pens	Drop
1	Federico Sciarra	Scrum-half	1990-1999	39	261	12	36	43	1
2	Juan Menchaca	Fullback	1998-2007	39	254	6	28	51	5
3	Jerónimo Etcheverry	Fly-half	2008-	45	213	8	37	30	3
4	Mathias Arocena	Fly-half	2005-2014	36	204	8	25	37	1
5	Marcelo Nicola	Fly-half	1989-1995	21	172	10	33	20	0
6	Jorge Zerbino	Flanker	1973-1985	26	153	7	19	29	0
7	Diego Ormaechea	Number 8	1979-1999	54	151	33	0	0	0
8	Agustín Ormaechea	Scrum-half	2011-	30	138	5	19	25	0
9	Felipe Berchesi	Fly-half	2011-	20	135	1	8	37	1
10	Diego Aguirre	Fly-half	1992-2007	58	115	7	10	20	0

Last updated: Uruguay vs Canada, 25 February 2017. Statistics include officially capped matches only. ^[5]

Most matches as captain

#	Player	Pos	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Draw	%	Pts	Tries
1	Diego Ormaechea	Number 8	1985-1999	36	20	16	0	55.55	109	23
2	Jorge Zerbino	Flanker	1975–1985	20	12	6	2	65.00	120	7
3	Diego Aguirre	Fly-half	2002-2003	16	6	10	0	37.50	21	1
4	Nicolás Klappenbach	Hooker	2005-2015	15	15	8	7	53.33	0	0
5	Mario Lame	Lock	1995-2001	14	6	8	0	42.85	5	1