![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Chile-Uruguay-2025-Matias-Garafulic-e1756596588796-660x330.jpg\")
Foto: Prensa Chile Rugby<\/p>\nUruguay battled past Chile in Santiago on Saturday. Los Teros were pushed hard before staging a come-from-behind victory in a clash showcasing vast improvement in terms of the quality of rugby on display compared to matches from years gone by.<\/p>\n
Los Teros were 28-16 winners in the first of two Rugby World Cup 2027 Qualifiers between Uruguay and Chile. It means that the Uruguayans now have a 12+ advantage heading into the return match which will be played next Saturday in Montevideo.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cheered on by vocal home supporters at the Estadio Municipal de La Pintana, Chile gave Uruguay a run for their money. Los C\u00f3ndores fought back from two first-half Uruguayan tries to take the lead in the second-half and send Uruguay a warning.<\/p>\n
Los Teros soaked up the pressure to hit-back and score all of the remaining points. The 28-16 final score came after Chile butchered several try scoring opportunities in the final quarter. Rodrigo Fern\u00e1ndez was guilty of kicking a penalty for the corner to far and Augusto B\u00f6hme was penalized for pulling down Felipe Etcheverry when Chile had a penalty two meters out from the opposition\u2019s try zone.<\/p>\n
The early play was all Uruguay. Mounting pressure saw Uruguay scoring twice. Center Felipe Arcos P\u00e9rez and hooker Germ\u00e1n Kessler both touched down in the try zone with Felipe Etcheverry converting both. Uruguay had gone ahead with the upper hand in the maul and at lineouts.<\/p>\n
Chile regrouped and took advantage of their superiority in the scrum. I\u00f1aki Gurruchaga won the battle against Mateo Sanguinetti with the Uruguayan conceding penalties for Santiago Videla to land two shots at goal to get Chile back within range.<\/p>\n
Additional scrum pressure saw Sanguinetti yellow carded late in the half. Meanwhile, Chile found their way into the Uruguayan try zone. Uruguay\u2019s tight defense finally gave way as Mat\u00edas Garafulic broke clear and managed to get the ball over after no ruck formed following a tackle.<\/p>\n
Foto: Prensa Chile Rugby<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Santiago Videla converted the try to make it a 14-13 deficit. He had an opportunity to put Chile ahead but it his penalty kick was to the left of the posts. He made amends early in the second-half. His third successful penalty kick put Chile 16-14 ahead.<\/p>\n
Chile were winning rucks and looked good but the score was their last of the match. Uruguay, recovered from two yellow cards, to hit-back. Scrum-half Santiago Arata scored from the back of a rolling-maul. The class of the Top 14 player contributed heavily to Uruguay regaining the lead and going on to win the match.<\/p>\n
Arata directly play well on attack and was also a general in defense; he got Uruguay out of the danger zone with clearing box kicks. It was a powerful weapon in Uruguay\u2019s arsenal as Uruguay\u2019s calmness was different to Chile who took more risks which sometimes worked against them.<\/p>\n
Indeed, sensible play saw Uruguay scoring twice quickly as Ignacio \u00c1lvarez Akiki scored two minutes after Arata. Etcheverry converted both for a 28-16 lead. It had come seemingly out of nowhere and with it Chile were playing catch-up.<\/p>\n
Panic mode followed as Los C\u00f3ndores needed to score points. They threatened to do so but did not succeed. Uruguay celebrated their win but ended with 14-men as replacement N8 Carlos Deus was yellow carde for making head-contact.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The match is the first of two to determine who will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2027 as South America 1. Game two will be played in Montevideo, Uruguay on Saturday, September 06.
\nUruguay take a 12+ advantage into game two. Chile need to win by 13 or more to qualify as South America 1.
\nThe result was Chile\u2019s first loss of 2025.
\nMateo Sanguinetti earned his 95th cap for Uruguay.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753579808_157_logo-chile-thumbnail-2020.png\"){kind=logo}
CHILE (16)
TRY \u2013 M Garafulic
CON \u2013 S Videla
PEN \u2013 S Videla (3)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo-uruguay-thumbnail.png\"){kind=logo}
URUGUAY (28)
TRY \u2013 F Arcos P\u00e9rez; G Kessler; S Arata, I \u00c1lvarez Akiki
CON \u2013 F Etcheverry 4
YC \u2013 M Sanguinetti, I \u00c1lvarez Akiki, C Deus<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
RWC QUALIFIER vs \u00a0TEAMS<\/p>\n
CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco, 2 Diego Escobar, 3 I\u00f1aki Gurruchaga, 4 Santiago Pedrero, 5 Javier Eissmann, 6 Raimundo Mart\u00ednez, 7 Clemente Saavedra (capt.), 8 Alfonso Escobar, 9 Benjam\u00edn Videla, 10 Rodrigo Fern\u00e1ndez, 11 Nicol\u00e1s Garafulic, 12 Santiago Videla, 13 Mat\u00edas Garafulic, 14 I\u00f1aki Ayarza, 15 Crist\u00f3bal Game<\/p>\n
Replacements: 16 Salvador Lues, 17 Augusto B\u00f6hme, 18 Mat\u00edas Dittus, 19 Bruno S\u00e1ez, 20 Ernesto Tchimino, 21 Lucas Berti, 22 Juan Cruz Reyes, 23 Nicol\u00e1s Saab<\/p>\n
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germ\u00e1n Kessler, 3 Reinaldo Piussi, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Manuel Leindekar (capt.), 6 Santiago Civetta, Lucas Bianchi, 8 Manuel Ardao, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Baltazar Amaya, 12 Andr\u00e9s Vilaseca, 13 Felipe Arcos P\u00e9rez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Juan Gonz\u00e1lez<\/p>\n
Replacements: 16 Facundo Gattas, 17 Francisco Su\u00e1rez, 18 Ignacio P\u00e9culo, 19 Ignacio Dotti, 20 Carlos Deus, 21 Santiago \u00c1lvarez, 22 Ignacio \u00c1lvarez Akiki, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Referee: J\u00e9r\u00e9my Rozier (France)
Assistant Referees: Tom\u00e1s Bertazza (Argentina); Damian Schneider (Argentina)
TMO: Marcelo Pilara (Argentina)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uruguay battled past Chile in Santiago on Saturday. Los Teros were pushed hard before staging a come-from-behind victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-108013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}