Andrés Vilaseca has been handed Uruguay’s captaincy role. The 26-year-old leads Los Teros in their away test match on Saturday against Chile. The match is a round three fixture in the 2018 Americas Rugby Championship (ARC).
From Montevideo’s Old Boys club, Vilaseca takes over from Juan Manuel Gaminara. The regular captain of Uruguay has been ruled out of traveling to Chile due to injury.
Also sidelined are Tight Head Mario Sagario, no 8 Alejandro Nieto, scrum-half Santiago Arata and winger Nicolás Freitas. The loss of these players is in addition to Uruguay’s European-Based players having returned to their clubs after playing in the RWC 2019 qualifiers against Canada.
Vilaseca has been a mainstay in Uruguay’s squad. He made his international debut in 2013 against Argentina and has gone on to have a total of 39 caps. He will earn his 40th against Chile.
The Old Boys center started in all four of Uruguay’s matches in RWC 2015. He also started in the Americas 2 qualifiers against Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Canada. Against the North Americans he scored a second-half double to help set-up Uruguay’s successful qualification for Japan 2019.