Uruguay booked their tickets to England and Wales with a home win over Russia in October 2014. The match was the return fixture of a home-and-away series in the final round of RWC 2015 repechage qualifying.
In game one of the series, Russia won by a single point in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. This meant Los Teros were favorites to win the Montevideo fixture. The South Americans successfully did so, winning 36-27 at the Estadio Charrúa to win the series 57-49 on aggregate.
At half-time in Montevideo it did not appear that Uruguay had the result sealed. To the contrary, an erratic opening half display saw Russia leading at the break with Uruguayan captain, Nicolás Klappenbach visibly angry throughout the half.
RWC 2003 veteran, Rodrigo Capó Ortega calmed Los Teros. His leadership in the second half could be noted as the vital point that saw Uruguay settle and rebound. With three tries, Los Teros booked their place as the 20th competitor at RWC 2015.
The occasion was very special for Uruguayan rugby. It saw Los Teros back in a RWC after a red-card heart-break saw them missing out on reaching RWC 2007 and Romania were one hurdle too far four years later.
Uruguay’s return to the RWC saw a very improved level of play. It has continued to be the case, as noted by Uruguay’s upset win over Fiji in RWC 2019. With vastly more international competition, more players playing professional and a pro team in the country Uruguayan rugby has never been stronger.
SCORING
URUGUAY (36)
Try: Prada (45′), Corral (54′), Ormaechea (63′)
Conversion: Berchesi 3 (46′, 55′, 64′)
Penalty: Berchesi 5 (14′, 19′, 32′, 34′, 77′)
RUSSIA (27)
Try: Yanyushkin (38′), Artemyev (72′)
Conversion: Kushnarev (73′)
Penalty: Kushnarev 5 (10′, 21′, 24′, 36′, 45′)
TEAMS
URUGUAY
1 Alejo Corral, 2 Nicolás Klappenbach (capt.), 3 Oscar Durán, 4 Santiago Vilaseca, 5 Rodrigo Capó Ortega, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 7 Diego Magno, 8 Alejando Nieto, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 11 Jerónimo Etcheverry, 12 Alberto Román, 13 Joaquín Prada, 14 Santiago Gilbernau, 15 Gastón Mieres
Replacements: 16 Arturo Avalo, 17 Carlos Arboleya, 18 Franco Lamanna, 19 Mathias Palomeque, 20
Juan de Freitas, 21 Leandro Leivas, 22 Alejo Durán
RUSSIA
1 Grigory Tsnobiladze, 2 Valery Tsnobiladze, 3 Andrei Igretsov, 4 Alexandr Voytov (capt.), 5 Kirill Kulemin, 6 Andrei Temnov, 7 Andrei Ostrikov, 8 Victor Gresev, 9 Alexandr Ianyushkin, 10 Yuri Kushnarev, 11 Vladimir Ostrushko, 12 Dimitri Gerasimov, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 14
Denis Simplikevich, 15 Vasily Artemyev
Replacements: 16 Vladislav Korshunov, 17 Evgeni Pronenko, 18 Andrei Garbuzov, 19 Pavel Butenko, 20 Igor Klyuchnikov, 21 Alexei Shcherban, 22 Ramil Gaisin
The following video is courtesy of Agustín Basso.