North American and South American Players at Rugby World Cup 2023

Three American countries will take to the fields in France for Rugby World Cup 2023. The three are Argentina, Uruguay and the debuting Chile. They will proudly fly the flags of their countries and look to play with distinction.

North America will not have a team at the World Cup. Uruguay qualified as Americas 1 and Chile as Americas 2. Chile defeated both Canada and the USA on aggregate to qualify. This saw Canada eliminated and the USA into repechage where they tied with Portugal but missed out.

This article lists North American and South American players who will be involved in the World Cup. It includes players representing a team other than that they were born in. Brazil, Canada, Peru and the USA will not play at the World Cup but all have a player connection through birth.

The article also lists every player representing Argentina, Chile and Uruguay at Rugby World Cup 2023. It notes where the players were born, home clubs, and caps per player..

Click here to read the about the Foreign-Born players at RWC 2023.

 

TEAMS WITH PLAYERS FROM THE AMERICAS

 

IRELAND

Two players born in the USA are on Ireland’s roster for the World Cup. Loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman and second-rower Joe McCarthy were born in Nevada and New York respectively.

Loughman has the strongest links to America. He was born in Reno, Nevada, and moved to England when he was four. His father is Irish and they moved to County Kildare at age 12. While the family later moved back to the USA to live in California, Loughman stayed in Ireland to pursue his rugby career.

Both of McCarthy’s parents are Irish and he was born in Manhattan while his father worked in New York. At the age of three his family returned to Dublin. Both Loughman and McCarthy came through Ireland’s age-grade system and represented their country in the u20 Six Nations.

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Jeremy Loughman	USA	Ireland	LH	Parent	–
Joe McCarthy	USA	Ireland	LO	Parent	–

SCOTLAND

Scotland hooker Ewan Ashman was born in Toronto and moved to England at the age of four. His father is Scottish and his mother is English. He could play for Canada one day if he has a three-year period without representative duty for the Scots. This would enable him to transfer to Canada under World Rugby eligibility laws.

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Ewan Ashman	Canada	England	HK	Parent	–

 

ITALY

Argentines Juan Ignacio Brex and Iván Nemer qualify for Italy via a grandparent. Both were born and raised in Argentina and went through the country’s High Performance system. Brex used the Olympic loophole to change his allegiance from Argentina to Italy. They are teammates for Benetton in the United Rugby Championship (URC).

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Iván Nemer	Argentina	Argentina	LH	Grandparent	Argentina u19, u20
Juan Ignacio Brex	Argentina	Argentina	CE	Grandparent	Argentina u19, u20, 7s, XV

 

ROMANIA

Romania’s roster contains Robert Irimescu. He received a call-up for Romania in February. Irimescu is from New York and earned Collegiate All-American honors while at Penn State. After three seasons of Major League Rugby with New York and DC, Irimescu opted to pursue international honors for Romania. He speaks fluent Romanian and qualifies through his parents, who are both from Constanta.

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Robert Irimescu	USA	USA	HK	Parent	Collegiate All-American

 

CHILE

Salvador Lues was born in Lima, Peru to Chilean parents. The family returned to Chile immediately after his birth. He never lived in Lima and spent all his school years in Chile. He is a product of COBS in Santiago and a professional rugby player for Selknam.

Matías Garafulic was born in São Paulo, Brazil to Chilean parents. His father was working in Brazil at the time of his birth. They returned to Chile when he was two years old. His older brother, Nicolás Garafulic is also on Chile’s roster for the World Cup. He was born in Santiago. Like Salvador Lues, the Garafulic brothers are from the COBS club.

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Salvador Lues	Peru	Chile	LH	Parent	–
Matías Garafulic	Brazil	Chile	CE	Parent	–

 

URUGUAY

Fullback Baltazar Amaya moved to Uruguay aged 8. He was born in Argentina where he first played rugby for Hindú aged 5. Amaya is a product of Uruguayan amateur rugby and subsequently the High Performance system.

PLAYER	BORN	PRODUCED	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Baltazar Amaya	Argentina	Uruguay	FB	Residency (2009)	–

 

WORLD CUP ROSTERS – AMERICAS

ARGENTINA – LOS PUMAS

Argentina’s players comes from throughout the country. As listed below, it is a very different look to that from the Rugby World Cup 2007 Semi Finalists. The roster for the tournament had 26 out of 30 players from Buenos Aires. The 2023 roster sees Buenos Aires now in the minority to have slightly more players than Córdoba.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Thomas Gallo	Tucumán	Universitario	LH	17
Mayco Vivas	Rafaela	Círculo Rafaelino	LH	18
Agustín Creevy	Buenos Aires	San Luis	HK	101
Julián Montoya	Buenos Aires	Newman	HK	89
Ignacio Ruiz	Buenos Aires	Regatas Bella Vista	HK	6
Eduardo Bello	Córdoba	San Martín de Villa María	TH	14
Francisco Gómez Kodela	Buenos Aires	Belgrano	TH	31
Joel Sclavi	Mar del Plata	Pueyrredón	TH	12
Matías Alemanno	Córdoba	La Tablada	LO	86
Tomás Lavanini	Buenos Aires	Hindú	LO	82
Guido Petti	Buenos Aires	San Isidro	LO	75
Juan Martín González	Mendoza	Marista	FL	24
Facundo Isa	Santiago del Estero	Lawn Tennis	FL	47
Marcos Kremer	Concordia	Salto Grande	FL	57
Joaquín Oviedo	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	FL	1
Pablo Matera	Mendoza	Alumni	FL	95
Pedro Rubiolo	Rafaela	Círculo Rafaelino	FL	5
Rodrigo Bruni	Tandil	Uncas	N8	21
Lautaro Bazán Vélez	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	SH	7
Gonzalo Bertranou	Mendoza	Los Tordos	SH	53
Tomás Cubelli	Buenos Aires	Belgrano	SH	89
Santiago Carreras	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	FH	35
Nicolás Sánchez	Tucumán	Lawn Tennis	FH	98
Santiago Chocobares	Rufino	Pampas de Rufino	CE	8
Lucio Cinti	La Plata	La Plata RC	CE	16
Jerónimo de la Fuente	Rosario	Duendes	CE	76
Matías Moroni	Buenos Aires	CUBA	CE	74
Emiliano Boffelli	Rosario	Duendes	WI	53
Mateo Carreras	Córdoba	Los Tarcos	WI	11
Juan Imhoff	Rosario	Duendes	WI	43
Rodrigo Isgró	Mendoza	Mendoza RC	WI	2
Martín Bogado	Posadas	Centro de Cazadores	FB	2
Juan Cruz Mallía	Córdoba	Jockey	FB	25

 

CHILE – LOS CÓNDORES

Chile’s historic first-ever World Cup roster is entirely homegrown. Clubs from Chilean capital of Santiago are responsible for the production of the majority of players. These include the two Chilean players who were born abroad. Both Salvador Lues and Matías Garafulic are from COBS, Craighouse Old Boys in the Lo Barnechea commune in Santiago.

Players not from Santiago came through rugby clubs on the coastal city of Viña del Mar, the southern city of Concepción and the northern city of Antofagasta.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Javier Carrasco	Santiago	Old Redlanders	LH	19
Vittorio Lastra	Viña del Mar	Old Macks	LH	22
Salvador Lues	Lima, Peru	COBS	HK	11
Augusto Bohme	Santiago	Universidad Católica	HK	22
Tomás Dussaillant	Santiago	Old Boys	HK	37
Diego Escobar	Santiago	COBS	TH	5
Matías Dittus	Santiago	Universidad Católica	TH	21
Iñaki Gurruchaga	Concepción	Old Johns Concepción	TH	11
Esteban Inostroza	Santiago	PWCC	LO	1
Javier Eissmann	Santiago	Universidad Católica	LO	21
Pablo Huete	Santiago	Old Boys	LO	30
Santiago Pedrero	Santiago	COBS	LO	6
Augusto Sarmiento	Santiago	PWCC	LO	15
Alfonso Escobar	Santiago	COBS	FL	18
Raimundo Martínez	Santiago	PWCC	FL	10
Thomas Orchard	Antofagasta	Old Lions	FL	12
Clemente Saavedra	Santiago	Old Boys	FL	20
Martín Sigren	Santiago	Old Boys	FL	27
Ignacio Silva	Santiago	PWCC	FL	38
Lukas Carvallo	Santiago	PWCC	SH	6
Nicolás Herreros	Viña del Mar	Sporting	SH	5
Marcelo Torrealba	Santiago	Old Boys	SH	12
Benjamín Videla	Santiago	Old Boys	SH	–
Rodrigo Fernández	Santiago	COBS	FH	23
Santiago Videla	Santiago	Old Boys	FH	25
Pablo Casas	Santiago	PWCC	CE	15
Matías Garafulic	São Paulo, Brazil	COBS	CE	12
José Ignacio Larenas	Santiago	Universidad Católica	CE	47
Domingo Saavedra	Santiago	Old Boys	CE	24
Franco Velarde	Viña del Mar	Viña RC	WI	16
Nicolás Garafulic	Santiago	COBS	WI	19
Iñaki Ayarza	Santiago	PWCC	FB	14
Francisco Urroz	Santiago	Old Redlanders	FB	11

 

URUGUAY – LOS TEROS

Uruguay’s roster is dominated by players from Montevideo clubs. This has been the standard of Los Teros’ rosters from prior World Cups. Every player is homegrown. The players who are not products  of Montevideo clubs are Reinaldo Piussi from the west, Juan Manuel Rodríguez from the northwest and the trio of Eric Dosantos, Facundo Gattas and Gastón Mieres from Maldonado in the east. The URU has set itself the project of taking rugby nationwide.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Mateo Sanguinetti	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	LH	80
Matías Benítez	Montevideo	Champagnat	LH	45
Facundo Gattas	Maldonado	Los Lobos	HK	39
Germán Kessler	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	HK/LH	62
Guillermo Pujadas	Montevideo	Champagnat	HK	28
Diego Arbelo	Montevideo	MVCC	TH	18
Ignacio Péculo	Montevideo	Old Christians	TH	13
Reinaldo Piussi	Dolores	Dolores	TH	4
Felipe Aliaga	Montevideo	Los Ceibos	LO	5
Ignacio Dotti	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	LO	59
Manuel Leindekar	Montevideo	Old Boys	LO	28
Manuel Ardao	Montevideo	Old Christians	FL	23
Lucas Bianchi	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	FL	10
Santiago Civetta	Montevideo	Old Boys	FL	26
Juan Manuel Rodríguez	Salto	Trébol de Paysandú	FL/N8	3
Eric Dosantos	Maldonado	Los Lobos	FL	16
Carlos Deus	Montevideo	Old Boys	FL/LO	3
Manuel Diana	Montevideo	Old Christians	N8	38
Santiago Álvarez	Montvideo	Carrasco Polo	SH	7
Santiago Arata	Montevideo	Old Christians	SH	45
Agustín Ormaechea	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	SH	56
Felipe Berchesi	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FH	45
Felipe Etcheverry	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FH	20
Felipe Arcos Pérez	Montevideo	Old Boys	CE	9
Nicolás Freitas	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	WI/CE	50
Tomás Inciarte	Montevideo	Old Christians	CE/SH	32
Andrés Vilaseca	Montevideo	Old Boys	CE	75
Juan Manuel Alonso	Montevideo	MVCC	WI	8
Bautista Basso	Montevideo	Old Boys	WI	4
Ignacio Facciolo	Montevideo	Círculo de Tenis	WI	1
Gastón Mieres	Maldonado	Los Lobos	WI/FB	82
Baltazar Amaya	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Old Boys	FB/WI	8
Rodrigo Silva	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FB	77