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Saturday, October 10, 2021 was historic; for South America it was a bright day. Two matches were played and won by South American countries against higher ranked and favored opposition from North America. First, Chile defeated Canada to remain in contention for a place in RWC 2023. Second, Uruguay defeated the USA to qualify for RWC 2023.
Chile had never defeted Canada before Saturday. They very nearly achieved a win one week earlier but it was the match on home soil that mattered. With the two matches having the scores combined on aggregate, Los Cóndores needed a win by 2 or more points to advance at the expense of Canada.
Having achieved the feat, Chile are now closer to qualifying for a RWC than ever before. Los Cóndores will face the USA in a home-and-away series next July. The winner will qualify for RWC 2023 as Americas 2. The loser will not be eliminated; rather, there will be a final opportunity in a four team tournament to qualify as the 20th, and final, participant of RWC 2023.
Canada has no further chances. In losing to Chile, Canada has been eliminated from the RWC 2023 qualifiers. This marks the first time wherein Canada has failed to qualify for a Men’s Rugby World Cup. Saturday’s loss against Chile was a dark day for Canadian rugby. The North Americans were outperformed by the determined, skilled and well-prepared Chileans.
Click here to read the match report.
Game two was also historic. Uruguay had beaten the USA in the past; notwithstanding, Uruguay had never qualified for the Rugby World Cup as Americas 1 before. In beating the Eagles, Uruguay qualified for France 2023 ahead of both the USA and Canada. This was an even better performance than the 2015 qualifiers when Uruguay downed Canada to qualify as Americas 2.
World Rugby has altered the qualifying path from one RWC to the next. For Uruguay this has seen South America vs North America qualifying series as well as qualifying matches against teams from far and wide over the years. Indeed, Uruguay has played RWC qualifying matches against teams such as Morocco, Portugal, Romania, Hong Kong and Russia.
Uruguay’s series win over the USA sees Los Teros qualifying via the fastest route on offer. Attention can now turn to the November tour to Romania and Italy. The match against the latter will serve as an early look ahead of RWC 2023; Uruguay will face Italy as well as France, New Zealand and Africa 1 at the tournament.
Los Teros put on a strong performance against the USA. The win was on merit with the home side playing the better rugby on the day and playing notably better than in the first match one week earlier in Glendale, Colorado. Los Teros got the win without two of their biggest names – Felipe Berchesi and Germán Kessler. This, in itself, is a testament to how much progress has been made.
Click here to read the match report.
