Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Uruguay is to host Argentina in Punta del Este and the USA in Montevideo in the upcoming Americas Rugby Championship. The two home matches will take place in rounds three and five of the Six Nations tournament. The three remaining matches will be away matches for Los Teros with visits to Canada, Brazil and Chile.
Uruguay’s home match against Argentina on February 20 will be played at the Campus Municipal de Maldonado. Pictured below the stadium is situated in the Uruguayan resort town of Punta del Este and the venue has a capacity of 22,000.
The fixture will make history not only by being Uruguay’s first home match in the new Americas Rugby Championship but also because the venue and city will be new to test match rugby. Games outside of Montevideo have been rare with Canelones playing host to Paraguay and Portugal in 2003 and 2006 in addition to Paysandú hosting a test vs Argentina in 2014.
With the URU having acquired the Estadio Charruá the decision to move the match against Argentina to Punta del Este is all the more significant. It is akin to Wales playing at Liberty Stadium in Swansea or England playing outside of Twickenham.
The Estadio Charrúa (pictured below) will, nonetheless, host Uruguay’s second and final home match in the Americas Rugby Championship. To be played on March 05, Montevideo will host the home international against the USA at the URU’s headquarters.
The 14,000 capacity stadium last played host to the USA Eagles in March 2014. On that occasion the teams competed to a 27-27 draw. The Eagles regrouped and produced an impressive second half in the return fixture in Atlanta to qualify for Rugby World Cup 2015.
The Estadio Charruá has, to date, hosted 27 international matches over a 30 year period from 1985-2015. Los Teros have performed well, winning 16 games, drawing 2 and losing 9. Securing a home victory will be priority but winning on the road is far from being out of question. First up Uruguay will face Canada on February 06 at Westhills Stadium in Langford, British Columbia. The 4pm local time kick-off will be 9pm Uruguayan time.
The following week Uruguay will face Brazil at a yet to be determined location. The Estadio Da Montanha in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul has been put forward as an option though Americas Rugby News has learned that an alternate venue in a different city is been sought.
After hosing Argentina in round three Uruguay will travel to Chile to face Los Condores in San Carlos de Apoquino on Saturday February 27. The match will be played at 8:10pm and will be broadcast by the ESPN who has acquired rights.
