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URU President Argentine Esteban Meneses is the new Uruguay Head Coach, replacing Pablo Lemoine. The Uni´n de Rugby del Uruguay (URU) made the announcement on Wednesday, thereby confirming the structure of the Uruguayan senior men’s staff ahead of the upcoming competition in 2016.
Los Teros will join Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and the USA in competing in the new Americas Rugby Championship. Uruguay will begin their campaign with an away match against Canada on February 06 at Westhills Stadium in Langford, British Columbia and will also face both Brazil and Chile in away matches. Confirmation that the home games against Argentina and the USA on February 20 and march 06 will be played in Mopntevideo are expected on January 04.
Head Coach Esteban Meneses joins with vast experience. The former Head Coach of powerful Buenos Aires clubs CUBA and La Plata has a two year term. His appointment comes with strong recommendations from many, including Daniel Hourcade who coached Argentina to the Semi Finals of Rugby World Cup 2015.
URU President Sebastián Piñeyrúa commented that “we are very pleased to have contracted Esteban, we would like to thank Carlos Araujo, Agustín Pichot and Daniel Hourcade very much. Together after weeks of hard work we have been able to make it possible to have ‘Mono’ Menesesas Head Coach”.
“For Uruguay it is a great challenge and we place turst in what is going to be a decisive step to keep building and to have increasingly competitive rugby”.
The appointment completes a quick transition to replace Lemoine who leaves after four years in charge of the national side, but is not leaving Uruguayan rugby. He instead moves upstairs to become the new Director of High Performance, where he will oversee all national programs, player identification, and take charge of the new High Performance Center at the Estadio Charrúa.
Joining Meneses as part of the staff will be two Uruguayan coaches. Guzmán Barreiro, formerly of Old Christians, will act as his primary Assistant Coach, while retiring World Cup prop Oscar Durán will become High Performance Scrum Coach. The new Strength and Conditioning Coach is Guillermo Selves, with Federico Izeta moving into the same role at Estadio Charrúa. Santiago Slinger is the General Manager, and Fabián Stipo his assistant.
The new staff will begin immediately, with the first training sessions involving 50 senior players taking place on January 4 to begin preparations for the Americas Rugby Championship.
