Incredible fight back sees Uruguay home
By Frankie Deges
From Punta del Este, Uruguay
Uruguay men’s will play in their second Rugby World Cup Sevens after victory at the CONSUR Sevens regional qualifier in Punta del Este on Saturday.
The road for Los Teros was not easy and they had to work extremely hard to beat Chile 31-19 in the hard-fought qualifying final.
Any match, at any level, between Uruguay and Chile promises sparks, and this was no exception. The Chilean Condors opened with a neat try early on and scored a second in response to Uruguay’s opening try. The first half finished with the visiting side playing better and leading 12-5, which was extended to 19-5 in the first minute of the second half.
But the Uruguayans, who were playing their sixth tournament in three months and aiming to reach a second consecutive RWC Sevens, waited patiently for their opportunities. They came and once Chile were on the back foot, Los Teros were unstoppable, scoring 26 unanswered points in the last five minutes to the delight of the home crowd.
“We worked extremely hard to be in the position to qualify so now that we’ve achieved that goal, we are very happy,” said Ignacio Conti, one of the team’s most experienced players. “We travelled a lot to prepare and now that we have qualified, it all made sense.”
Fly-half Matías Arocena, with Conti the only survivors of the squad that played in the last RWC Sevens in Hong Kong, added: “Having missed qualification for RWC 2007, we owed it to ourselves to make this happen. It was a long journey, but one that brought us this joy of qualification. It all makes sense now.”
Argentina, who had played a friendly against Peru earlier in the day, won the CONSUR title by beating Uruguay 26-0 in the final. But by then, the Brazilian girls were still singing and the Uruguayan boys had achieved their goal of securing tickets to RWC Sevens.
Day two results:
MEN
Semi-finals:
Uruguay 29 - Colombia 14
Chile 21 - Brazil 12
7th v 8th
Paraguay 24 - Venezuela 19
Friendly
Argentina 41 - Peru 0
3rd place playoff
Brazil 12 - Colombia 5
Final qualifying match
Uruguay 31 - Chile 19
CONSUR Final
Argentina 26 - Uruguay 0
