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Paraguay is looking to Argentina for eligible players. In an open letter posted by the Unión de Rugby del Paraguay (URP) today the national governing body invited players to an upcoming meeting.
The initiative is being organized together with Argentina’s Northeastern union the Unión de Rugby del Noreste (URNE). It invites both men’s and women’s players born since 2001 who are natives of Paraguay, or have a Paraguayan parent or Grandparent.
The invitation is to be considered for upcoming international competition and to this end a meeting will take place on Monday, July 15 at the Sixty RC in Resistencia, Argentina.
Present at the meeting will be Raúl Pérez. The former Jaguares Super Rugby Head Coach is now the Head Coach of Paraguay’s Men’s test team and also runs the national High Performance Center.
There is a large expat population of Paraguayans in Argentina. The 2010 Argentine Census noted that there were 550,713 people born in Paraguay who were residing in Argentina. This number corresponded to 30.5% of all of the foreigners living in Argentina and 1.37% of the entire population of Argentina.
Those who play in Corrientes or Chaco will be the most accessible for the meeting. Yet with it being the first event of its kind the possibility certainly exists for future events to take place in other locations including Buenos Aires where the majority of Argentina’s Paraguayan-born population live.
Paraguay’s men’s team is presently ranked 8th in the Americas, and 6th in South America. It has slipped in recent years behind both Brazil, and Colombia.
