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Uruguay’s rugby system is a model for others. Those were the words of Mark Egan, World Rugby’s Head of Development and Performance. Egan’s positive evaluation of Uruguay’s progress follows World Rugby’s decision to allocate Montevideo with hosting rights of the 2017 Junior World Trophy. Egan was speaking to Ignacio Chans of Uruguayan web publication Referí.
“I was able to see the Estadio Charrúa for the first time in 10 years, and I was very impressed with the progress that has been made, with the standard of the facilities. But what is more important is that the World Cup performances were very good. In fact the Uruguayan system is a model for other countries of how to use a High Performance Plan with centralized work, government support and sponsors, and players with great passion for the team.
“They are a very well organized union, which is one of the challenges of other countries that do not understand what High Performance means, and do not have the governing structures. They have put together a very well structured system in the High Performance Center. They have shown that they want to host tournaments. Without tournaments it is difficult to attract interest from sponsors and TV. The fact that the URU has come to an agreement with DirecTV (for the Americas Pacific Challenge) with the transmission of 11 HD cameras is incredible. This cannot be seen in any other Tier 2 country.”
Egan confirmed that World Rugby now considers Uruguay to be a Tier 2 member union. This is an important advancement. At Rugby World Cup 2015 Uruguay and Namibia were the only Tier 3 unions. Namibia remains defined as such while Uruguay does not. The new classification sees Uruguay join Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Romania, Samoa, Tonga, and the USA.
“Uruguay is in the Tier 2 for the coming four years and need to qualify for the next World Cup to maintain investment levels. We are investing US $700,000 a year in Uruguay in plans and competitions. They deserve even more investment and we want to give it to them to help.
“There are different categories, it depends on the evaluation that we do. The teams that have a chance to qualify for World Cup quarter-finals have priority. We have Japan, Georgia, Fiji, and possibly Samoa. It depends on the cost of the country. The USA is an enormous country, it has more players than Uruguay. It is more expensive to do things there.
“It is not realistic for Uruguay to reach the quarter-finals. That said they are important in the scheme of the World Cup. We know that they could be competitive playing a good level of rugby. For this reason we are continuing to invest.”
What Uruguay is lacking, according to Egan, is wins.
“They need better results. They play a modern style of rugby. In the next two or three years Uruguay should beat those ranked above them. Winning the Americas Rugby Championship would be a very good objective.”
