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An English Premiership club is interested in the services of Uruguay’s World Cup No8. The Bristol Bears are on the trail of Manuel Diana of the Toronto Arrows. Now with 25 caps, he broke into test rugby during RWC 2019 cycle.
Diana overtook long-time starter Alejandro Nieto as Los Teros’ starting No8 in 2019. He played in three of Uruguay’s RWC 2019 matches and was a try scorer in the famous upset win against Fiji in Kamaishi.
Having impressed in his five starts with the Arrows, ARN understands that Bristol has already made approaches for Diana’s services. He was one of only three players to recently return home from Toronto in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and is not expected to remain in the Americas next season.
A move to England would see Diana joining several of his RWC 2019 teammates in continuing their careers in Europe. Hooker Germán Kessler signed for Charente in December and scrum-half Santiago Arata is off to Castres next season. They join Manuel Leindekar (Oyonnax), Agustín Ormaechea (Mont-de-Marsan) and Felipe Berchesi (Dax) in European leagues.
The 24-year-old Diana is a product of Old Christians Club in Montevideo, a club world-famous as the rugby team on Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 that crashed into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. As depicted in the 1993 Hollywood movie Alive, Roberto Canessa and Nando Parrado miraculously made it to civilization to enable a rescue operation. Ultimately there were 16 survivors and 29 deaths.
