As Uruguay enter the toughest pool in RWC history, with four top 10 ranked opponents. All they tell the media is how they are amateur, so here is an attempt at a slightly different look at the team.
In many ways, as a rugby nation, Uruguay are best summed up as a poorer version of Argentina. Obviously they are some way off the level of the Pumas, but they are similarities in various other senses.
On the pitch, stylistically Uruguay are similar to a traditional view of Argentina, passionate and often gutsy chopping defence (so not like certain teams in African or Asian rugby), and also have tended to enjoy scrummaging.
Off the pitch, in both countries the sport has been traditionally played amongst the upper class (that a club called Carrasco Polo is Uruguay's leading provider of players gives a clue), and both are very proud and like to talk of about 'amateur' ethos.
The clear difference though is that Argentina is a country of around 42 million, Uruguay is only 3 million, so they have a substantially wider talent pool. Which more recently over the past decade or so, also been boosted by a growth in the sport which had allowed the team to be more widespread from the Buenos Aires dominated team it was in some previous years.
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| Uruguay captain Santiago (L) will play the RWC with his brother Andres (R), just like in 2003 when Diego Aguirre led the side alongside his brother. |
Uruguay have to make do with one of the narrowest player pools of the teams who have qualified for the World Cup, with a small number of registered players, amongst a small section of the population.
With the player pool being so narrow, it has meant an unusual amount of brothers and family members have represented the national team. The current squad includes 8 players who had brothers play for the national team, considerably more than most others will have.
In the 2003 World Cup, Uruguay were captained by Diego Aguirre, who played in midfield alongside his brother Sebastián at that tournament. They also had another brother Matías who played for the national team.
And at this upcoming World Cup, Uruguay will be led by lock Santiago Vilaseca who like Aguirre in 2003 will also play alongside his younger brother, centre Andrés.
Los Teros previous captain, hooker Nicolás Klappenbach, who led them in the RWC qualifiers, also has a brother who's played for the national team in Rodrigo. Whilst their younger brother Facundo recently captained the U20 team in the Junior World Trophy.
Also notably scrum half Agustín Ormaechea, who's older brother Juan Diego had also played for the national team, is the son of Diego who captained the 1999 World Cup side and coached the 2003 side.
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| GIF: Possibly Uruguay's most creative player Agustín Ormaechea here creating a try in their win over Argentina Jaguars earlier this month. He would have been 8 years old when his father led the side in the 1999 RWC, and is also one of 8 players in the squad who have brothers play for the national team. |
Whilst Uruguay's best known player Rodrigo Capó Ortega, who pulled out of the tournament to stay with his pregnant wife, also played alongside his brother Federico between 2004-09.
Another player who has relatives play for the national side is young lock Jorge Zerbino, who made his debut earlier this year, becoming the fifth Zerbino to play for Los Teros (there is another in the U20 squad as well). One of which is Gustavo Zerbino, a former president of the URU, and a survivor of the 1972 Andes flight disaster.
Despite the limited player base, the game has often been passed down those families and within those clubs. As a result many of their players will have had the advantage of having played from a young age, which gives them a lead on certain technical aspects of the game, such as scrummaging, compared to some bigger nations they've faced in RWC qualifying.
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| Alejo Corral brings vast experience from years in the Argentinian league and is an important player for Uruguay at loosehead prop. |
When Uruguay faced USA in March last year, they were basically the polar opposites. One having a small pool of talent, but who had picked up the game early. The other had a far larger pool of athletic talent, and had bigger, stronger, faster players, but who may have picked up the sport later.
Uruguay strength was at prop, scrum half and fly half, all where they had players playing professionally in France. USA's strength was in the loose forwards and back three, and were at their weakest where Uruguay had some strength.
Los Teros ended up fading and coming off second best against a stronger side, but USA fielded a dreadful pairing of props and Uruguay humiliated the Eagles scrum, and fought harder over the two games than they were expected to.
The scrum, in combination with Agustín Ormaechea and Felipe Berchesi's goal kicking, and ability to scrap and disrupt at the breakdown was really the key factor in Uruguay's entire World Cup qualification campaign.
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| GIF: Felipe Berchesi showed a long range with his kicking throughout RWC qualifiers, complementing the pack with solid goal kicking from all over the pitch, regularly succeeding with 40+ metres attempts. In total, Berchesi scored 75 points in 5 qualifying matches, including 42 of the 57 points to beat Russia. In this clip he strikes over a penalty from inside his own half. |
Over 5 qualifying matches, Uruguay won 24 penalties to 4 conceded at the scrum, the opposition loosehead prop was sin binned in 4 of the 5 matches, and overall the scrum was directly worth about a third of their points.
In the second of the two legs against Russia in Montevideo, in what was a series decided by 8 point on home/away aggregate, Uruguay won 9 points of penalties from the scrum plus a 7 further points created by it.
Historically as well, anyone who remembers Uruguay at the 1999 World Cup will recall possibly their best ever player Pablo Lemoine, now head coach, spending an afternoon in Scotland shunting Spain all around the park to set up their first World Cup win with a pushover for Ormaechea and a later penalty try.
Video: Uruguay's greatest ever player Pablo Lemoine scrummaged Los
Teros to their first World Cup win vs Spain back in the 1999.
Lemoine actually backed it up against South Africa later in that tournament, as Uruguay went looking for a pushover try late on and forced the Springboks props to endure a series of scrums in what was a surprisingly close game.
The scrum has certainly been a strong part of Uruguayan rugby traditionally, and dominating in this area a huge part of what's brought them to a World Cup ahead of Russia, but it would be probably be a bit much to expect them to repeat how they fared in 1999 against the calibre of opponent they face in their pool.
Uruguay have relied a lot on loosehead Alejo Corral, who is brother of 1995 World Cup Pumas prop Matías, along with tighthead Mario Sagario, and the scrum hasn't looked so strong without them, or against other opponents such as Emerging Italy or Romania's second string.
Although the Corral, Klappenbach, Sagario front row did recently produce a penalty try in the second half against Emerging Ireland last June.
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| GIF: The Corral/Klappenbach/Sagario front row scored a penalty try vs Emerging Ireland was a brighter moment in an otherwise disappointing June series of matches for the Uruguayans. |
In the recent Junior World U20 Trophy last May, Uruguay beat both Fiji and Tonga, results that would seem almost unimaginable at senior level.
Whilst the previous year, Los Teritos were actually quite unlucky not to get a chance to play in the final and gain promotion to the main tournament.
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| Uruguay U20 score on their way to beating Fiji at this year's Junior World Trophy. Los Teritos also beat Tonga in the following match. |
They went unbeaten through the pool stages, but a drawn game opened the path for Japan, who they'd already beaten in the pool stages, to sneak through on try bonus points and become the eventual winners.
Overall since 2008 at U20 level, Uruguay have finished ranked in the top 16 in the world in 5 of the past 8 years, with wins over the likes of Fiji, Tonga, Canada or Japan, all unlikely wins at senior level, where they haven't beaten a top 18 ranked since 2006.
Problem is though, that along with such a narrow base of players to choose from, the vast majority of those youngsters who beat Tonga or Fiji at U20 level will not end up having a full time career in the sport.
Uruguay (as they are fond of telling media), are extremely proud of their amateur status, and haven't embraced the idea of professionalism, and watched nations like Georgia (who they beat in the 2003 World Cup) leap past them and who now manage to beat Los Teros playing a second string lineup.
Whilst there is a feeling at times Uruguay have spoken about virtually nothing else other being amateur, how proud they are of it, and sometimes even exaggerating, barely mentioning they have a few players playing in France. Nor mentioning the fact the URU president said he was to pay players to focus on rugby for 2015, where they've had a long series of pre-RWC matches and time together as as a squad dating back to March, mostly against second string teams of various nations.
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| Bookies see Uruguay as 67 point underdogs vs Wales. Considering Los Teros have only lost once by more than that in their 7 RWC matches, which was playing the champions on 3 days rest in 2003, they'd be sorely disappointed not beat that handicap in their first match up. |
It is still the case that the bulk of the squad still play for amateur clubs in Uruguay, and have to manage both work and rugby. So as well as lacking the size and calibre of athlete of their RWC pool opponents, they will also be at a huge disadvantage in terms of high level experience, and levels of fitness & conditioning.
Likely more so than some other sides expected not to win a game at the tournament, and the second half of the final game playing off 3 days rest has not been a friendly one for sides in their position. In this tournament, just as in 2003, Los Teros meet one of the tournament's favourites England in that game (possibly pushing for points difference as well).
That should be a struggle, but there is more fight about the side, more set piece competence, and more of an ability to disrupt at breakdown compared to a side like Russia, or even Namibia, and it could see them hang on a bit longer than some are expecting, especially nearer the start of the tournament.
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