Full Match – Scotland vs Uruguay 1999

Rugby World Cups were expanded from 16 to 20 teams for the 1999 tournament. The expansion benefits the Americas not only with Uruguay debuting, but also with the USA qualifying after the Eagles had missed out on a place at RWC 1995.

Uruguay famously debuted against Spain. In defeating Los Leones, Los Teros became the last debutant to win in their first ever RWC match. Six days after that game in the Scottish Borders, Uruguay faced Scotland at the home of Scottish Rugby, Murrayfield.

Scotland hosted all Pool A fixtures. This meant that Scotland, South Africa, Spain and Uruguay all faced each other in Scotland. The northern British territory was also allocated two play-off’s matches.

Sixteen years later would be Uruguay’s third appearance in a RWC. The England hosted tournament also saw matches taking place in Wales. The tournament organizers allocated home games for both England and Wales against Uruguay.

Uruguay’s appearances away to Scotland in RWC 1999; and England and Wales in RWC 2015 are unmatched. Indeed, no other country has played RWC matches as visitors against all three British teams on their respective home turf.

Also unique to Uruguay is that the match against Scotland was literally one of a kind. It was the first ever meeting between the countries and is also the only fixture thus far played between the countries.

The northern Europeans won 43-12. For a professional vs amateur meeting the scoreline was highly respectable.  At the same tournament Scotland were 35-20 winners against Samoa. The Pacific Islanders recorded wins over Japan and Wales in the competition.

Attendance: 9,463

 

TEAMS

SCOTLAND

1 Tom Smith, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 George Graham, 4 Scott Murray, 5 Stuart Grimes, 6 Martin Leslie, 7 Budge Pountney, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong (capt.), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Cameron Murray, 15 Glenn Metcalfe

Replacements: 16 Bryan Redpath, 17 Peter Walton, 18 Dave Hilton, 19 Robbie Russell, 20 Shaun Longstaff, 21 Duncan Hodge, 22 Doddie Weir

URUGUAY
1 Rodrigo Sánchez, 2 Diego Lamelas, 3 Pablo Lemoine, 4 Juan Carlos Bado, 5 Mario Lame, 6 Nicolás Brignoni, 7 Martín Panizza, 8 Diego Ormaechea (capt.), 9 Federico Sciarra, 10 Diego Aguirre, 11 Pablo Costabile, 12 Martín Mendaro, 13 Pedro Vecino, 14 Juan Menchaca, 15 Alfonso Cardoso

Replacements: 16 José Viana, 17 Fernando Sosa Díaz, 18 Nicolás Grille, 19 Eduardo Berruti, 20 Agustín Ponce de Leon, 21 Guillermo Storace, 22 Francisco de los Santos

SCORING

SCOTLAND (43)
Try: Russell, Armstrong, Metcalfe, M Leslie, Simpson, Townsend
Conversion: Logan (5)
Penalty: Logan

URUGUAY (12)
Penalty: Aguirre (3), Sciarra