Uruguay national rugby union team

There are reports of rugby football being played in Uruguay as early as 1865.^[1] The game was introduced by British immigrants, with the game being more popularized by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, who were of Irish origin. Because of this, Uruguay has one of the oldest rugby cultures outside the British Isles, and one of the most established in the South America.

Uruguay made their official international debut in 1948, in a game against Chile, which Uruguay lost 21–3. Following their debut match, they returned 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 0–61 in Montevideo during a South American tour. Uruguay after this match entered their second South American Rugby Championship. They first won against Brazil in a close game (11–8), then losing to Chile (5–28) and Argentina (3–36) in the closest result to then between both countries.

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.

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.

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.^[2]

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. On 3 February 2018, Los Teros qualified for 2019 Rugby World Cup as Americas 2 after beating Canada in the home-away leg, and started it with a surprising 30-27 win over Fiji on 25 September: it was Uruguay’s first World Cup win in 16 years.^[3][4]

On 30 October 2019, nightclub in southwestern Japan filed criminal complaint against players from the Uruguay team for 2019 Rugby World Cup for allegedly damaging property.^[5]

In 2021, Uruguay qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup as Americas 1, after a 1-1 series draw with the United States They lost the first game 19-16, but won the second game 34-15. They won on aggregate points (50-34) and are in Pool A with New Zealand, France, Italy and Namibia.

Men's World Rugby Rankings v t e Top 20 as of 27 May 2024[6]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		South Africa	094.54
2		Ireland	090.69
3		New Zealand	089.80
4		France	087.92
5		England	085.75
6		Scotland	082.82
7		Argentina	080.68
8		Italy	079.41
9		Australia	077.48
10		Wales	077.26
11		Fiji	076.38
12		Japan	074.27
13		Georgia	074.02
14		Samoa	072.23
15		Tonga	071.57
16		Portugal	070.28
17		United States	067.94
18		Uruguay	067.39
19		Spain	064.37
20		Romania	061.66
21		Canada	060.90
22		Namibia	060.56
23		Chile	060.49
24		Hong Kong	059.80
25		Russia	058.06
26		Switzerland	057.44
27		Netherlands	057.29
28		Belgium	055.89
29		Brazil	055.37
30		Korea	053.46
* Change from the previous week
Uruguay's historical rankings
See or edit source data.
Source: World Rugby[6] Graph updated to 27 May 2024

Uruguay has lost all official matches versus Argentina, but has a winning record against their other South American rivals such as Chile, Paraguay and Brazil. They played Chile for the fiftieth time during the 2023 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches, winning 26–25.^[7][8]

Regarding tier 2 teams, Uruguay has winning records against Namibia, Spain, Portugal and Russia, and losing records with United States, Canada, Japan, Georgia, Romania and Fiji.

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Uruguay national XV at test level up until 5 October 2023.^[9]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Argentina	42	0	42	0	0.00%	434	1744	−1310
Argentina XV	15	5	9	1	33.33%	329	530	−201
Argentina Jaguars	2	0	2	0	0.00%	40	101	−61
Australia	2	0	2	0	0.00%	13	110	−97
Belgium	1	1	0	0	100.00%	39	13	+26
Brazil	31	28	3	0	90.32%	1060	328	+732
Canada	13	5	8	0	33.33%	232	370	−138
Chile	50	39	10	1	78%	1229	753	+476
Emerging Ireland	3	0	3	0	0.00%	43	126	−83
England	2	0	2	0	0.00%	16	171	−155
Fiji	4	1	3	0	25.00%	76	181	−105
Fiji XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	3	24	−21
Fiji Warriors	3	1	2	0	33.33%	73	82	−9
France	1	0	1	0	0.00%	12	27	−15
France XV	3	0	3	0	0.00%	16	136	−120
Georgia	7	2	5	0	28.57%	104	175	−71
Germany	1	0	1	0	0.00%	21	24	−3
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	100.00%	28	3	+25
Italy	5	0	5	0	0.00%	52	147	−95
Emerging Italy	4	2	2	0	50.00%	90	89	+1
Italy A	1	0	1	0	0%	13	31	–18
Japan	5	1	4	0	20.00%	54	165	−111
Kazakhstan	1	1	0	0	100.00%	44	7	+37
Morocco	2	1	1	0	50.00%	36	24	+12
Namibia	6	5	1	0	83.33%	204	156	+48
New Zealand	1	0	1	0	0.00%	0	73	−73
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	13	2	10	1	15.38%	188	354	−166
Russia	9	5	4	0	55.55%	231	215	+16
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	13	7	6	0	53.85%	250	198	+52
United States	20	4	15	1	20%	361	612	−251
Venezuela	1	1	0	0	100.00%	92	8	+84
Wales	2	0	2	0	0.00%	22	89	−67
Total	310	145	160	5	46.77%	7023	7928	−905

Rugby World Cup record											Qualification
Year	Round	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	Squad	Head coach		Pos	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA
1987	Not invited										Not invited
1991	Did not enter										Did not enter
1995	Did not qualify										2nd	3	2	0	1	91	28
1999	Pool Stage	3	1	0	2	42	97	Squad	D. Herrera		4th	9	5	0	4	209	188
2003	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	56	255	Squad	D. Ormaechea		2nd	6	3	0	3	115	144
2007	Did not qualify										2nd	6	2	0	4	86	140
2011											1st	6	2	1	3	178	126
2015	Pool Stage	4	0	0	4	30	226	Squad	P. Lemoine		1st	9	6	1	2	260	168
2019	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	60	140	Squad	E. Meneses		1st	8	8	0	0	318	160
2023	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	65	164	Squad			1st	4	3	0	1	101	57
Total	—	19	4	0	15	253	882	—	—		—	51	31	2	18	1358	1011
Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place Home venue

On 21 August, Uruguay confirmed their 33-play squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.^[10]

Head Coach: Rodolfo Ambrosio

• Caps Updated: 21 August

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Facundo Gattas	Hooker	(1995-07-02) 2 July 1995 (age 28)	39	Old Glory DC
Germán Kessler	Hooker	(1994-07-01) 1 July 1994 (age 29)	62	US Montauban
Guillermo Pujadas	Hooker	(1997-02-06) 6 February 1997 (age 27)	28	Chicago Hounds
Diego Arbelo	Prop	(1994-08-19) 19 August 1994 (age 29)	18	Colorno
Matías Benítez	Prop	(1988-05-16) 16 May 1988 (age 36)	45	Peñarol
Ignacio Péculo	Prop	(1999-02-22) 22 February 1999 (age 25)	13	Chicago Hounds
Reinaldo Piussi	Prop	(1999-05-18) 18 May 1999 (age 25)	4	Miami Sharks
Mateo Sanguinetti	Prop	(1992-07-26) 26 July 1992 (age 31)	80	Peñarol
Felipe Aliaga	Lock	(1999-09-14) 14 September 1999 (age 24)	5	Peñarol
Ignacio Dotti	Lock	(1994-08-18) 18 August 1994 (age 29)	59	Old Glory DC
Manuel Leindekar	Lock	(1997-04-23) 23 April 1997 (age 27)	28	Bayonne
Manuel Ardao	Back row	(1998-09-09) 9 September 1998 (age 25)	23	Miami Sharks
Lucas Bianchi	Back row	(2001-03-26) 26 March 2001 (age 23)	10	Peñarol
Santiago Civetta	Back row	(1998-02-28) 28 February 1998 (age 26)	26	Peñarol
Carlos Deus	Back row	(2001-07-05) 5 July 2001 (age 22)	3	Peñarol
Manuel Diana	Back row	(1996-03-07) 7 March 1996 (age 28)	38	Peñarol
Eric Dosantos	Back row	(1995-02-25) 25 February 1995 (age 29)	16	Peñarol
Juan Manuel Rodríguez	Back row	(1996-12-15) 15 December 1996 (age 27)	3	Peñarol
Santiago Álvarez	Scrum-half	(2001-12-24) 24 December 2001 (age 22)	7	Peñarol
Santiago Arata	Scrum-half	(1996-09-02) 2 September 1996 (age 27)	45	Castres Olympique
Agustín Ormaechea	Scrum-half	(1991-03-08) 8 March 1991 (age 33)	56	Nice
Felipe Berchesi	Fly-half	(1991-04-12) 12 April 1991 (age 33)	45	Dax
Felipe Etcheverry	Fly-half	(1996-06-23) 23 June 1996 (age 27)	20	Miami Sharks
Felipe Arcos Pérez	Centre	(2001-05-17) 17 May 2001 (age 23)	9	Old Boys
Nicolás Freitas	Centre	(1993-07-03) 3 July 1993 (age 30)	50	Vannes
Tomás Inciarte	Centre	(1996-10-22) 22 October 1996 (age 27)	32	Miami Sharks
Andrés Vilaseca (c)	Centre	(1991-05-08) 8 May 1991 (age 33)	75	Vannes
Juan Manuel Alonso	Wing	(2001-09-19) 19 September 2001 (age 22)	8	Peñarol
Baltazar Amaya	Wing	(1999-05-26) 26 May 1999 (age 25)	8	Peñarol
Bautista Basso	Wing	(2001-01-18) 18 January 2001 (age 23)	4	Peñarol
Ignacio Facciolo	Wing	(1998-12-28) 28 December 1998 (age 25)	1	Peñarol
Gastón Mieres	Fullback	(1989-10-05) 5 October 1989 (age 34)	82	Peñarol
Rodrigo Silva	Fullback	(1992-11-02) 2 November 1992 (age 31)	77	Peñarol

Last updated: New Zealand vs Uruguay, 5 October 2023. Statistics include officially capped matches only.

Last updated: New Zealand vs Uruguay, 5 October 2023. Statistics include officially capped matches only.

Last updated: New Zealand vs Uruguay, 5 October 2023. Statistics include officially capped matches only.

Last updated: New Zealand vs Uruguay, 5 October 2023. Statistics include officially capped matches only.

• Diego Aguirre
• Rodrigo Capo Ortega
• Alfonso Cardoso
• Alejo Corral
• Diego Lamelas
• Juan Menchaca
• Diego Ormaechea
• Pablo Lemoine
• Juan Campomar
• Joaquin Pastore

Since the 1999 Rugby World Cup

Years	Coach
1994–2000	Daniel Herrera
2001–2003	Diego Ormaechea
2004–2005	Sebastián Piñeyrúa
2006–2007	Nicolás Inciarte & Fernando Silva
2007	José Brancato & Francisco Berrutti
2007–2008	Alberico Passadore
2008–2009	García Porcel
2009	Felipe Puig
2010	Gonzalo Camardón
2011	Sebastián Piñeyrúa
2011–2015	Pablo Lemoine
2016–2023	Esteban Meneses
2024–present	Rodolfo Ambrosio

• Rugby union in Uruguay
• Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby – Club Championship of Uruguay

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Uruguay national rugby union team.

• Official website
• Uruguay – Rugbydata.com
• Uruguay Official Matches