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Uruguay
Union	Unión de Rugby del Uruguay
Nickname(s)	Los Teros
Team colours
First international
Chile 21 - 3 Uruguay (1948-06-02)
Largest win
Paraguay 3 - 93 Uruguay (1998-10-10)
Worst defeat
South Africa 134 - 3 Uruguay (2005-06-11)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 1999)
Best result	3rd in pool 1999

Uruguay has played in the 1999 and 2003 Rugby World Cups. They have been playing international rugby since the late 1940s. Their jersey is blue and black and they are known as Los Teros (see Southern Lapwing). They are governed by the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1940s - 1960s 1.2 1970s - 1980s 1.3 1990s-present 2 World Cup record 3 Current squad 4 See also 5 External links

Uruguay made their official international debut in 1948, in a game against Chile, which Uruguay lost 21 points to three. Following their respectable debut match, their next game would be in 1951, against the more experienced Argentina team. The experience was evident as Argentina defeated Uruguay 62 points to nil. Shortly after they were to meet Chile again, who previously defeated them in their first match. Coming off the bad loss to Argentina, Uruguay were able to turn themselves around, defeating Chile, and following it up with a win over Brazil.

Uruguay did not have a solid international calendar in the 1950s, so their next match would be five years later, against Chile, who defeated them, and again two years later. In 1958, they again met Argentina, who put on a similar show as they did with their first encounter, Uruguay was defeated 50 points to three. Though Uruguay were able to muster together a win later that year, defeating Peru.

Uruguay started off the 1960s in good form, defeating Brazil in a close game. However, this was followed by a four game losing streak, although the team did play Argentina twice, and showed signs of improvement, as the scoreline, whilst still a sound defeat, was almost half of that of their previous losses. They only won one other game in the 1960s, a match against Chile in 1964, which was followed by a five game losing streak.

The 1970s was a much better period for Uruguay in comparison to previous decades. They started off with a win over Paraguay in 1971, which was followed by a win and loss against Chile and a win against Brazil. However, they were beaten by Argentina by 55 points on two occasions in the early 1970s. However, they won all their matches except for those against Argentina, as well as losing one game against Chile and drawing another. The 1977 game against Argentina saw them go down 77 points to nil, a much larger deficit than all the previous meetings. However, the next game against Argentina, two years later in 1979, Uruguay came close to pulling off a huge upset, 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 undefeated roll that was stopped by Argentina in 1983. Uruguay did not come any closer to beating Argentina, and the team found mixed results in the middle of the decade. 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 a very large loss to a new opponent, the United States, going down by 60 points to the Eagles.

The 1990s started off in an optimistic fashion, with three straight defeats 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 to 9 loss in 1995. Uruguay fell to a five game losing streak in 1996/7, losing to 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. Apart from a few wins against Paraguay, Chile and Portugal, Uruguay lost most of their games in the latter years of the 1990s. However, a huge success for them was qualifying for the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales. They only won one game in the pool stages, against Spain, Uruguay finished third in their pool, not qualifying for the finals.

Uruguay came within 10 points of Argentina in 2001, and subsequently lost games to big nations such as Italy in the same year. Uruguay won most of their matches against their traditional Americas opponents in the early 2000s and even came within four points of the United States in 2002. Later in 2002, Uruguay pulled of a win over Canada, winning 25 to 23. They followed this up with a 10 to nine win over the United States. They again qualified for the World Cup, but they lost most of their preparation games against the U.S., Canada and Argentina. They were defeated 72 points to six in their opening game against the Springboks at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, this was followed by a loss to Samoa. They did however win one pool game, defeating Georgia 24 to 12. This was however followed by a very large loss to eventual-champions England, being 111 to 13. Post-2003 World Cup, Uruguay won most of their games in 2004, going down only to Argentina, they were however, beaten by the Springboks the following year by well over 100 points.

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 points to nil to Argentina, they defeated Chile 43 to 15 in Montevideo, which saw them enter Round 4, where they faced the USA. Uruguay lost on aggregate 75-20, and moved onto the repechage round as Americas 4. They played Portugal over two legs - losing the first in Lisbon and winning the second in Montevideo. Despite winning the second and final leg of the series, Portugal qualified on aggregate points.

• 1987 - Did not enter.
• 1991 - Did not qualify.
• 1995 - Did not qualify.
• 1999 - Qualified, one win. Third in pool. (Out of 4)
• 2003 - Qualified, one win. Fourth in pool. (Out of 5)

Forwards:

• Diego Silveira
• Juan Pérez
• Guillermo Storace
• Juan Alzueta
• Carlos Protasi
• Alfredo Guiria
• Rafael Alvaréz
• Ignacio Conti
• Luis Ara
• Gonzalo Peyrou
• Diego Bertacchi
• Sebastián Aguirre
• Juan Miguel Álvarez
• Carlos Arboleya
• Juan Carlos Bado
• Rodrigo Capó
• Federico Capó
• Pablo Lemoine
• Rodrigo Sánchez

Backs:

• Diego Aguirre
• Rafael Álvarez
• Nicolás Brignoni
• Francisco Bulanti
• Joaquín De Freitas
• Alfredo Giuria
• Juan Labat
• Juan Martín Llovet
• Juan Menchaca
• Joaquín Pastore
• Hernán Ponte (Rouen)
• Gaston Ibararu
• Matías Arocena
• Nicolas Morales
• Agustin Perez del Castillo
• Ivo Dugonjic
• Hilario Cannesa
• Carlos Baldasarri
• Emiliano Caffera
• Juan Campomar

• Rugby union in Uruguay

• Unión de Rugby del Uruguay - Official Site
• Uruguay - Rugbydata.com