Uruguay

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is many different things to different people. Famed for art deco buildings, colonial architecture, and wearing its Latin heart on its sleeve, it’s also the best place to get a steak in South America. But the home city of Pablo Lemoine could also become a hotbed of rugby, if only it gets the chance.

The radar ping of Uruguay’s victory in the 1950 football World Cup bounces off the walls of every rugby club changing room in the country, from the capital Montevideo to its western rugby outpost Paysandú. And it’s as strong now as when it was first dispatched, when the final whistle blew in Uruguay’s impossible 2-1 victory over Brazil in the newly-built Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on 16 July 1950.

The message it conveys is that you, a Uruguayan, must fight with all the pride in your heart to get anywhere today. It is borne out of the notion that Uruguayans start at a disadvantage to their neighbours, and yet they must still get ahead, showing love for their country whilst doing so.

In Uruguay this mindset is called garra Charrúa (literally ‘the claw of the Charrúa’ – the indigenous group of warriors who fought against the Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century), and it extends well beyond the confines of sport, forming a keystone of the national psyche. While garra Charrúa invokes the will and fury of those native Uruguayan warriors, its relevance has been modernised thanks to those crazy ninety minutes of football 74 years ago. 

In the build-up to the match, the Uruguayan players knew they only had an outside chance of toppling the Brazil side that had thumped everyone else up to this point, giving all Brazilians – and some Uruguayans – the absolute assurance that this would be a coronation of their great team.

Amidst this atmosphere, Brazil began with an onslaught on Uruguay’s goal with Zizinho, Ademir and Jair a triumvirate of tormentors. For a while, Brazil completely dominated the game. But in their captain Obdulio Varela, Uruguay had a man who was truly extolling garra Charrúa. 

Before the match, Varela had given a speech in the changing room which has gone down in Uruguayan folklore, ending his call to arms by declaring that Uruguay would challenge the Brazilians at their own game, rather than play defensively (as their coach had instructed them to do). His final words were an upbeat pledge, ‘Que comience la función!’ – ‘Let’s start the show!’

But after 25 minutes the show wasn’t going Uruguay’s way. And so Varela took it upon himself to claw away at his opponents in a malicious, but effective, way. When an opportunity presented itself he punched the Brazilian defender Bigode around the ear. Visibly shaken in the immediate aftermath, Bigode played on but was a shadow of himself for the rest of the match. Varela got away with just a verbal warning from the referee. 

The captain’s toils and troubles slowly started to pay off. After going a goal down, Uruguay equalised in the 66th minute with Schiaffino and went on to score a second through Alcides Ghiggia. Every contemporary report recalls the haunting silence in the stadium which followed the goal, as 200,000 people didn’t breathe for five seconds. While Brazil still had the time to make a comeback, they were so shocked by the goal, they barely resembled a group of people who knew each other, let alone a football team.

And then, all of a sudden, it was over. Uruguay had won. One of the game’s greatest ever upsets was completed in near silence. It was Uruguay’s second World Cup triumph after winning the tournament in 1930; and yet for the greatest team in the world – Brazil – the wait would have to go on.

For Uruguay, the nation could see more clearly than ever that, although they were a population of just 2.5 million people (now 3.5 million), they could be a mighty warrior on the world’s sporting stage, so long as they harnessed their garra Charrúa.

Rugby – by its very nature – was well placed to embed that philosophy into the sport. In recent years, the national team’s garra Charrúa has spearheaded them to famous victories: beating Canada to qualify for the Rugby World Cup in 2019, then beating Fiji at the tournament itself, and last year, pushing the hosts France hard in their World Cup pool encounter in Lille, eventually going down 27-12. The men’s sevens team, too, have ousted plenty of established nations, qualifying for the World Series for the first time as a core nation in 2022, and they will be competing at the top table again in the forthcoming season, having dominated the Challenger circuit in 2024.

None of these achievements will make a footnote in the history of the world, yet a Uruguayan rugby club will forever feature – specifically, the Old Christians Club in Montevideo. What took place has become known as the Miracle of the Andes. 

For those that don’t know the story, on 13 October 1972, a plane flying from Montevideo carrying this amateur Uruguayan rugby team, and several of their friends and family, crashed in the Andes mountains. The group, consisting of 45 people in total, were flying aboard a Fairchild FH-227D bound for Santiago, Chile, to play a match. Their flight path took them over the Andes, a notoriously treacherous terrain, when disaster struck. The plane encountered poor weather, and the pilots misjudged their location. Believing they had already cleared the Andes, they began descending prematurely, a tragic miscalculation which caused the aircraft to crash into a mountain peak. Twelve people died immediately from the crash, while others sustained serious injuries.

The survivors found themselves stranded in one of the most remote and inhospitable environments on earth, with little hope of immediate rescue. In the days following the accident, additional victims succumbed to their injuries, or to the extreme cold and harsh conditions.

Despite the bleak circumstances, the survivors demonstrated incredible resilience, choosing to eat the flesh and organs of the passengers that had already died to avoid starving to death themselves. After enduring more than two months in the mountains, two of the group, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, set out on foot to seek help. After a ten-day trek across the mountains, they encountered a Chilean shepherd, who helped raise the alarm.

On 20 December 1972, 72 days after the crash, the remaining sixteen survivors were finally rescued by helicopters. The story has since become a symbol of human endurance and is often cited as one of the greatest survival stories in modern history. When this is part of your rugby culture, it’s fair to say it’s a rich one.

But how did rugby come to Uruguay in the first place? Like Uruguay’s neighbours, the foundations of rugby in the country were laid by British workers who emigrated to Latin America in the 1860s to work on the railways, bringing their customs and their favourite sports with them. They quickly established hospitals, schools, restaurants, pubs, markets and rugby clubs, the oldest of which is the Montevideo Cricket Club. “Its exact founding date is July 18th, 1861, making it the eighth oldest club in the world,” explains Fabio Magno, the current president of the Uruguay Rugby Union and a player and captain for fifteen years at Montevideo Cricket Club. “As British communities interacted with the local population, clubs began to accept non-British members and diversified their sporting activities. This led to other sports, such as football, which would eventually become the most popular sport in the region, but cricket and rugby maintained a significant presence in some countries.”

For Fabio, Uruguay’s connection to sport comes down to the population’s connection with nature. “Uruguay’s landscapes are wonderful, especially its long coastline, which covers much of the country and invites people to exercise and lead healthy lives.”

But, more essentially, it’s about their garra Charrúa. “For us, not only in rugby but in life in general, everything is a bit more challenging, especially being so few; everything is a bit more difficult.” His eyes fill with tears as he talks us through how difficult it is for such a small country to face every project, problem or challenge that comes up and how garra Charrúa shines through every time a Uruguayan plays a sport representing his country. It is an unequivocal sensation that Uruguayans feel.

Fabio regathers himself and continues. “Rugby in its early days, and even now to some extent, struggles to establish itself as we would like. Uruguay is and always will be a predominantly football-loving country, much like Argentina, where rugby develops in an amateur and community context. It started among the English and spread more in the area of Colonia, one of our most beautiful cities by the river, as well as our capital, Montevideo, where over fifty per cent of the country’s population resides.” 

In Uruguay, rugby clubs are predominantly concentrated in Montevideo; a city of tranquil waterfronts, and arguably the best place to eat steak in the whole of South America. The majority of the country’s rugby activity takes place here, with clubs mainly located in the more affluent neighbourhoods such as Carrasco, Pocitos and Punta Carretas. These areas tend to have better infrastructure and access to resources, making them hubs for the sport.

Montevideo’s rugby scene is divided among several clubs, many of which are long-established and have strong ties to local schools and institutions. The sport is played on a smaller scale in the interior regions of the country and, while there are clubs in other cities, such as Maldonado and Paysandú, they are less prominent than those in the capital. As a result, rugby remains more of an urban and, to some extent, elite pursuit, with limited participation in rural areas and smaller towns. 

Fabio highlights two important milestones. “In our history, two events stand out. The first is failing to qualify for the 2011 World Cup. The other is the granting of the stadium nicknamed Charrúa in Montevideo, the home of Uruguayan rugby and ‘Los Teros’, the nickname given to the national rugby team. 

“Since then, all activity has been channelled through that stadium, making us more competitive and as professional as we can be,” says Fabio. “This increases activity and attracts more people. Uruguay had a very good participation in the 2015 World Cup, achieved a better ranking in 2019, and the same for 2023. Moreover, the players who move to other leagues raise our profile abroad. We created the Superliga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) which enables players to show themselves much more.”

The SLAR is the premier professional rugby union competition in South America. It was established in 2020 with the aim of fostering the development of rugby in the region and providing a professional platform for South American teams and players to compete at a higher level. The league features teams from various countries across South America – including Penarol Rugby from Uruguay, Selknam from Chile, Pampas and Dogos from Argentina, Cobras from Brazil, Yacare XV from Paraguay, and the new addition of the American Raptors from the USA – and its creation marked a significant step forward for rugby in the continent.

Uruguay’s progress in recent years is epitomised by their famous victory over Fiji in the 2019 Rugby World Cup, however the story of how they got there started many years before. “That [win over Fiji] was just a small demonstration of something that had already been happening,” says Fabio. “We should go back to 1998, when Uruguay first qualified for a Rugby World Cup, in Wales in 1999, and later in 2003, when the World Cup was staged in Australia.”

In the group stages of the 2003 World Cup, England rugby fans may recollect that Josh Lewsey scored five tries against Los Teros [England won 111-13], but what some may not remember is that Uruguay’s only try (scored by Pablo Lemoine) was one of just two tries conceded by England across four group stage games – the other was scored by Samoa. Neither South Africa nor Georgia crossed the whitewash against England, whilst in the knockout stages, France and Australia joined Uruguay in crossing once, leaving Wales as the only team to score more than once against the world champions-in-waiting.

Uruguay’s mere presence at the 2003 World Cup significantly boosted rugby in the country. “These World Cups [1999 and 2003] served as a showcase for Uruguayan rugby,” Fabio explains. “From there, we continued to fight for World Cup qualifications, but unfortunately, we were still far from what international rugby was. We still had a very artisanal and amateur approach to professional rugby.” 

One of the major issues in Uruguayan rugby is still the gap between professionalism and amateurism, a divide compounded by the ongoing debate as to which approach is preferable. On one side, there are those who wish to keep rugby as it was in its early days, in a completely amateur atmosphere, promoting the values of the sport and ensuring their survival. This side of the debate maintains that moving towards professionalism would change the mentality of the clubs and make it a totally different sport. 

On the opposite side are those who believe that amateurism is increasingly unsustainable as players need to be better prepared each year to deal with the growing demands of the game. It generates many difficulties, as clubs with a higher social status, where players can dedicate more time to training, have a significant advantage over lower-status clubs, where players must balance work with playing rugby. Many players at smaller first division clubs in Uruguay work an eight-hour-day in the office like everyone else, then train on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, before coming up against opponents at the weekend who are well-rested, well-conditioned and who have spent the whole week preparing for the match. Not an easy task.       

The idea of a life fully dedicated to rugby had not been a possibility for many players, but things are changing.

The Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby is the top-tier competition for rugby union clubs in Uruguay (except for Peñarol whose priority is the Superliga Americana de Rugby). It is organised by the Uruguayan Rugby Union and is structured in several divisions, catering to different levels of club rugby within the country. Teams in the first division typically include the most successful and established rugby clubs in the country, such as Old Boys, Carrasco Polo, and Trébol. The clubs in this division play a round-robin format, followed by playoffs to decide the winner. The majority of the players at these clubs have come through the well-established public school rugby route. 

Alongside this pathway, the Uruguayan Rugby Union have been promoting rugby through sports centres and prisons. This task has been carried out to a large extent by these same clubs, which have understood that an enormous effort must be made to make the sport more widespread. “You have to offer a good product, convince the parents with the offer,” Fabio adds. “Trying not to interfere with the person’s work and school life, that’s why it is challenging. The person should trust and enjoy this commitment and the challenge that that involves.” 

Unlike in Argentina, club rugby is not something that’s ingrained in the daily life of Uruguayans. The interest in the sport is there, thanks in part to the feat of the national side, but much remains to be done.

Recently, thanks to the growth of the sport in the region and the creation of the Superliga Americana de Rugby, the outlook has become more promising. Franchises like Peñarol serve as showcases for players to be seen by the major international rugby markets – today, this is what young players look to, something that once seemed unimaginable.

When it comes to pursuing professional rugby in Uruguay, there is none better to speak to than Pablo Lemoine, the first Uruguayan rugby player to play for a professional club in the major European leagues (and the only blemish to England’s defensive copybook that day in 2003). Known for his size, his ferocity, and enviable open play for his position, Lemoine joined Bristol Shoguns in 1998, helping them achieve promotion to the Premiership. He then had spells with Stade Français and Montauban before ending his playing career with his home club, Montevideo. “It was 1998, I was nineteen years old, had gone through all the selection processes and had been part of Los Teros since 1995, when I received the offer to join Bristol rugby club,” Pablo recalls. “I can say I left fully convinced – I was at a great moment in terms of national selection and club in my country, and I was already training as if I were a professional, at a time when professionalism seemed distant. So, you could say that, in some way, I opened the doors for many more players at that time.”

How was the experience of playing professional rugby in England? “[I was] facing the unknown,” he says. “I was discovering what professional life was like with everything that entails, and on top of that, not knowing English. There were also no South American team-mates to rely on. At first, no one made anything easier for you; everyone was fighting to survive – that’s professionalism.”

Pablo earned respect on the field, known for his dominance in the scrum and defensive areas, proving that the sacrifices of leaving his home, his friends, his family and his club, hadn’t been in vain. “Uruguay has something special; otherwise, it would have been absorbed by Argentina and Brazil,” he continues. “Despite being so small, it always shows courage, pride, and a way of facing adversity.” 

Looking ahead at what the future might hold for Uruguay, Pablo is largely positive, but reserves some criticism too.

“Rugby is one of the best sports projects in Uruguay. After the national football team, two or three football clubs, rugby union in Uruguay comes next, with international recognition.

“In Uruguay, we fish in the same fishbowl forever: the players come from the same clubs, the same places. There is a great opportunity to change the optics and bring new growth. It must be understood that bringing more people around rugby is the real success and not so much the results.”

Uruguay’s rugby story is one of resilience, ambition, and an unwavering sense of identity, rooted in its garra Charrúa. From the rugged mountains of the Andes to the sun-soaked beaches of Montevideo, the nation has consistently defied the odds, both on and off the pitch. Though football reigns supreme, rugby’s growth reflects the indomitable spirit of a country determined to carve out its own path, regardless of its size or limited resources. A foundation as good as any for a bright future. 

Story by Mateo Kentish

Pictures by  Sarah Coghill, Uruguay Ministry of Tourism & Mathias Pensalfini Cardozo

This extract was taken from issue 27 of Rugby.
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