Clubs and Origin – Argentina, Chile and Uruguay’s World Cup Players

RWC 2023 will be the first Rugby World Cup to feature three South American competitors. Argentina have played in every Rugby World Cup. RWC 2023 will be Uruguay’s fifth and Chile’s first. The players are all South Americans and the rosters are all homegrown.

This article documents the players who will represent Argentina, Chile and Uruguay at Rugby World Cup 2023. All three countries have rosters of thirty-three players. The individual places of birth and clubs of origin are listed as are caps.

 

WORLD CUP ROSTERS – AMERICAS

ARGENTINA – LOS PUMAS

Argentina’s roster is notably different to that of Los Pumas de Bronze. The 2007 roster which reached the Semi Finals and finished third contained 30 players. 26 of the 30 players were from Buenos Aires. The roster for RWC 2023 is very different with Buenos Aires now only slight ahead of Córdoba.

Eight of the thirty-three players were born in the Buenos Aires district capital. They are joined by three others born in other parts of Buenos Aires province: Joel Sclavi from Mar del Plata, Rodrigo Bruni from Tandil and Lucio Cinti from La Plata.

In some instances the home club is different to the city of birth. For instance, Pablo Matera is from Alumni club in Buenos Aires but was actually born in Mendoza. Similarly, Mateo Carreras is a Tucumano born in Córdoba.

Argentina’s third largest city is Rosario. It has contributed three players to the World Cup. The trio are all products of the same club – Duendes. They have all played in prior Rugby World Cups and are well-known throughout the rugby world. They are Emiliano Bofelli, Jerónimo de la Fuente and Juan Imhoff.

Martín Bogado is from Posadas, the capital of Misiones province. The city borders Encarnación, Paraguay across the Paraguay river. Marcos Kremer is from Concórdia which borders Salto, Uruguay across the Uruguay river.

Santiago Chocobares is from the small town of Rufino. In terms of place of birth, Rufino is the only city with a population of under 100,000 represented on Argentina’s roster. Rafaela is the second smallest with 109,000. Pedro Rubiolo and Mayco Vivas are from the city in Santa Fé province.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Thomas Gallo	Tucumán	Universitario	LH	17
Mayco Vivas	Rafaela	Círculo Rafaelino	LH	18
Agustín Creevy	Buenos Aires	San Luis	HK	101
Julián Montoya	Buenos Aires	Newman	HK	89
Ignacio Ruiz	Buenos Aires	Regatas Bella Vista	HK	6
Eduardo Bello	Córdoba	San Martín de Villa María	TH	14
Francisco Gómez Kodela	Buenos Aires	Belgrano	TH	31
Joel Sclavi	Mar del Plata	Pueyrredón	TH	12
Matías Alemanno	Córdoba	La Tablada	LO	86
Tomás Lavanini	Buenos Aires	Hindú	LO	82
Guido Petti	Buenos Aires	San Isidro	LO	75
Juan Martín González	Mendoza	Marista	FL	24
Facundo Isa	Santiago del Estero	Lawn Tennis	FL	47
Marcos Kremer	Concórdia	Salto Grande	FL	57
Joaquín Oviedo	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	FL	1
Pablo Matera	Mendoza	Alumni	FL	95
Pedro Rubiolo	Rafaela	Círculo Rafaelino	FL	5
Rodrigo Bruni	Tandil	Uncas	N8	21
Lautaro Bazán Vélez	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	SH	7
Gonzalo Bertranou	Mendoza	Los Tordos	SH	53
Tomás Cubelli	Buenos Aires	Belgrano	SH	89
Santiago Carreras	Córdoba	Córdoba Athletic	FH	35
Nicolás Sánchez	Tucumán	Lawn Tennis	FH	98
Santiago Chocobares	Rufino	Pampas de Rufino	CE	8
Lucio Cinti	La Plata	La Plata RC	CE	16
Jerónimo de la Fuente	Rosario	Duendes	CE	76
Matías Moroni	Buenos Aires	CUBA	CE	74
Emiliano Boffelli	Rosario	Duendes	WI	53
Mateo Carreras	Córdoba	Los Tarcos	WI	11
Juan Imhoff	Rosario	Duendes	WI	43
Rodrigo Isgró	Mendoza	Mendoza RC	WI	2
Martín Bogado	Posadas	Centro de Cazadores	FB	2
Juan Cruz Mallía	Córdoba	Jockey	FB	25

 

CHILE – LOS CÓNDORES

Clubs from Chilean capital of Santiago are responsible for the production of the majority of players. These include the two Chilean players who were born abroad. Both Salvador Lues and Matías Garafulic are from COBS, Craighouse Old Boys in the Lo Barnechea commune in Santiago.

Prominent Santiago clubs COBS, Old Boys, Old Redlanders, Prince of Wales Country Club (PWCC), and Universidad Católica are heavily represented. COBS is home to two sets of brothers on the roster: Matías and Nicolás Garafulic and Alfonso and Diego Escobar. COBS has seven players on Los Cóndores 33-man roster.

Chile’s four sets of brothers is the most ever on any Rugby World Cup roster. In addition to the Garafulic and Escobar brothers the roster also contains Benjamín and Santiago Videla and the twin brothers Clemente Saavedra and Domingo Saavedra. These four players are from the Old Boys club.

Three others are from Old Boys. These are captain Martín Sigren, veteran second-rower Pablo Huete and scrum-half Marcelo Torrealba. The three players have all previously played abroad as professional players. Sigren played this past season for the Doncaster Knights in England’s second division. Torrealba previously played Major League Rugby for Austin Gilgronis while Huete played for Castres, Pau, Massy, Bayonne and Charente in France and for Tasman Mako in New Zealand.

Players not from Santiago came through rugby clubs on the coastal city of Viña del Mar, the southern city of Concepción and the northern city of Antofagasta. This represents a near 2000km distance from Concepción in the South to Antofagasta in the North. This is not disimilar to the distance from Los Angeles to Vancouver. In short, a lot of Chile will be represented directly on the field.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Javier Carrasco	Santiago	Old Redlanders	LH	19
Vittorio Lastra	Viña del Mar	Old Macks	LH	22
Salvador Lues	Lima, Peru	COBS	HK	11
Augusto Bohme	Santiago	Universidad Católica	HK	22
Tomás Dussaillant	Santiago	Old Boys	HK	37
Diego Escobar	Santiago	COBS	TH	5
Matías Dittus	Santiago	Universidad Católica	TH	21
Iñaki Gurruchaga	Concepción	Old Johns Concepción	TH	11
Esteban Inostroza	Santiago	PWCC	LO	1
Javier Eissmann	Santiago	Universidad Católica	LO	21
Pablo Huete	Santiago	Old Boys	LO	30
Santiago Pedrero	Santiago	COBS	LO	6
Augusto Sarmiento	Santiago	PWCC	LO	15
Alfonso Escobar	Santiago	COBS	FL	18
Raimundo Martínez	Santiago	PWCC	FL	10
Thomas Orchard	Antofagasta	Old Lions	FL	12
Clemente Saavedra	Santiago	Old Boys	FL	20
Martín Sigren	Santiago	Old Boys	FL	27
Ignacio Silva	Santiago	PWCC	FL	38
Lukas Carvallo	Santiago	PWCC	SH	6
Nicolás Herreros	Viña del Mar	Sporting	SH	5
Marcelo Torrealba	Santiago	Old Boys	SH	12
Benjamín Videla	Santiago	Old Boys	SH	–
Rodrigo Fernández	Santiago	COBS	FH	23
Santiago Videla	Santiago	Old Boys	FH	25
Pablo Casas	Santiago	PWCC	CE	15
Matías Garafulic	São Paulo, Brazil	COBS	CE	12
José Ignacio Larenas	Santiago	Universidad Católica	CE	47
Domingo Saavedra	Santiago	Old Boys	CE	24
Franco Velarde	Viña del Mar	Viña RC	WI	16
Nicolás Garafulic	Santiago	COBS	WI	19
Cristóbal Game	Concepción	Old Johns	WI	1
Iñaki Ayarza	Santiago	PWCC	FB	14
Francisco Urroz	Santiago	Old Redlanders	FB	11

* Nicolás Garafulic was ruled out of the World Cup on September 08. He was replaced by Cristóbal Game Jiménez.

 

URUGUAY – LOS TEROS

Uruguay’s roster is dominated by players from Montevideo clubs. This has been the standard of Los Teros’ rosters from prior Rugby World Cups. The capital has been the heart beat of Uruguayan rugby and is home to the oldest rugby club outside of Europe – Montevideo Cricket Club (MVCC).

MVCC was also the first Americas club to produce a player to reach 100 test caps for a country from the Americas. Diego Magno has 105 caps, four more than Puma Agustín Creevy. Granted, Argentine born, raised and homegrown players Sergio Parisse and Martín Castrogiovanni earned more for Italy.

While Magno missed out on a spot on the roster, Diego Arbelo and Juan Manuel Alonso will continue the tradition for MVCC at Rugby World Cup 2023. Champagnat also produced two RWC 2023 Teros, Matías Benítez and Guillermo Pujadas and are ahead of Los Ceibos and Círculo de Tenis with one Term each.

Four other Montevideo clubs are strongly represented on the roster. Old Christians have five players and Los Cuervos four. They are nonetheless dwarfed by Carrasco Polo and Old Boys which each have seven players. Old Boys is again home to the captain. In 2015 it was Santiago Vilaseca, 2019 Juan Manuel Gaminara and Andrés Vilaseca has led Los Teros since 2000.

Carrasco Polo and Old Boys combine to make up 42% of the 33-man roster. Old Boys is home to the one player born abroad. Fullback Baltazar Amaya moved to Uruguay from Argentina at the age of 8.

Players come from three Uruguayan cities other than Montevideo. Tight head Reinaldo Piussi is from Dolores in the west. N8 Juan Manuel Rodríguez is from Salto. The city is located across the Uruguay river from Marcos Kremer’s home town of Concórdia. Rodríguez learned his rugby at the Trébol de Paysandú club.

Lastly, three players come from Los Lobos. The rugby club is located in the tourist destination of Punta del Este in Maldonado department. They are flanker Eric Dosantos, hooker Facundo Gattas and winger Gastón Mieres.

PLAYER	BORN	HOME CLUB	POS	CAPS
Mateo Sanguinetti	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	LH	80
Matías Benítez	Montevideo	Champagnat	LH	45
Facundo Gattas	Maldonado	Los Lobos	HK	39
Germán Kessler	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	HK/LH	62
Guillermo Pujadas	Montevideo	Champagnat	HK	28
Diego Arbelo	Montevideo	MVCC	TH	18
Ignacio Péculo	Montevideo	Old Christians	TH	13
Reinaldo Piussi	Dolores	Dolores	TH	4
Felipe Aliaga	Montevideo	Los Ceibos	LO	5
Ignacio Dotti	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	LO	59
Manuel Leindekar	Montevideo	Old Boys	LO	28
Manuel Ardao	Montevideo	Old Christians	FL	23
Lucas Bianchi	Montevideo	Los Cuervos	FL	10
Santiago Civetta	Montevideo	Old Boys	FL	26
Juan Manuel Rodríguez	Salto	Trébol de Paysandú	FL/N8	3
Eric Dosantos	Maldonado	Los Lobos	FL	16
Carlos Deus	Montevideo	Old Boys	FL/LO	3
Manuel Diana	Montevideo	Old Christians	N8	38
Santiago Álvarez	Montvideo	Carrasco Polo	SH	7
Santiago Arata	Montevideo	Old Christians	SH	45
Agustín Ormaechea	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	SH	56
Felipe Berchesi	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FH	45
Felipe Etcheverry	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FH	20
Felipe Arcos Pérez	Montevideo	Old Boys	CE	9
Nicolás Freitas	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	WI/CE	50
Tomás Inciarte	Montevideo	Old Christians	CE/SH	32
Andrés Vilaseca	Montevideo	Old Boys	CE	75
Juan Manuel Alonso	Montevideo	MVCC	WI	8
Bautista Basso	Montevideo	Old Boys	WI	4
Ignacio Facciolo	Montevideo	Círculo de Tenis	WI	1
Gastón Mieres	Maldonado	Los Lobos	WI/FB	82
Baltazar Amaya	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Old Boys	FB/WI	8
Rodrigo Silva	Montevideo	Carrasco Polo	FB	77