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'Prepared to fight': Uruguay to fire 'last bullet' against All Blacks

Andres Vilaseca of Uruguay looks on during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between France and Uruguay at Stade Pierre Mauroy on September 14, 2023 in Lille, France. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Facing New Zealand in the final match of their World Cup campaign is the perfect way for Uruguay to round out the tournament, Los Teros’ captain Andres Vilaseca says.

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Uruguay troubled France in their opening 27-12 loss to the tournament hosts, led Italy 17-7 at halftime before going down 38-17, and tasted victory in a 36-26 win over Namibia in Lyon last week.

Centre Vilaseca insisted Uruguay have a plan to take the game to New Zealand, who need a bonus-point win on Thursday to be guaranteed a quarter-final spot, but said the most important element of it was his side’s attitude to the contest.

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“This team is prepared to fight the All Blacks. When we can, where we can. It is our last bullet before our World Cup is over,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“I’ll be happy if Uruguay fights everything and comes out empty.”

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Vilaseca said it was a dream to play New Zealand for the first time in a Test and that Los Teros had something special planned for when they faced the haka before the game.

“I love that they put out the best team possible,” he said.

“For us, it is a unique opportunity and I am happy for the respect they have shown us.”

Coach Esteban Meneses made seven changes to his starting lineup for Thursday’s game at OL Stadium, largely reverting to the side that impressed against France and Italy.

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Meneses dropped two of his try scorers from the Namibia win: Baltazar Amaya scored twice but made way for veteran Rodrigo Silva at fullback, while Gaston Mieres returned on the right wing in place of Bautista Basso.

Meneses also restored Tomas Inciarte to the centres alongside Vilaseca and made two changes to his back row, Manuel Diana returning at No.8 and Lucas Bianchi making his first start of the tournament at openside flanker.

“Everyone who has played has done so in a great way and it was really difficult to remove them to give other players a chance,” Meneses said.

“But it is part of the competition that has been generated in this squad, and that is what has made Uruguay competitive in these three World Cup games.”

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1 Comment
J
Jmann 441 days ago

That's the spirit - throw the ball about and have a crack. There is nothing the NZ team and rugby viewers the world over like more than teams playing attacking rugby.

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J
JW 13 minutes ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

Well I was mainly referring to my thinking about the split, which was essentially each /3 rounded up, but reliant on WCs to add buffer.


You may have been going for just a 16 team league ranking cup?


But yes, those were just ideas for how to select WCs, all very arbitrary but I think more interesting in ways than just going down a list (say like fl's) of who is next in line. Indeed in my reply to you I hinted at say the 'URC' WC spot actually being given to the Ireland pool and taken away from the Welsh pool.


It's easy to think that is excluding, and making it even harder on, a poor performing country, but this is all in context of a 18 or 20 team comp where URC (at least to those teams in the URC) got 6 places, which Wales has one side lingering around, and you'd expect should make. Imagine the spice in that 6N game with Italy, or any other of the URC members though! Everyone talks about SA joining the 6N, so not sure it will be a problem, but it would be a fairly minor one imo.


But that's a structure of the leagues were instead of thinking how to get in at the top, I started from the bottom and thought that it best those teams doing qualify for anything. Then I thought the two comps should be identical in structure. So that's were an even split comes in with creating numbers, and the 'UEFA' model you suggest using in some manner, I thought could be used for the WC's (5 in my 20 team comp) instead of those ideas of mine you pointed out.


I see Jones has waded in like his normal self when it comes to SH teams. One thing I really like about his idea is the name change to the two competitions, to Cup and Shield. Oh, and home and away matches.

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f
fl 1 hour ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Yes I was the one who suggested to use a UEFA style point. And I guessed, that based on the last 5 years we should start with 6 top14, 6 URC and 4 Prem."

Yes I am aware that you suggested it, but you then went on to say that we should initially start with a balance that clearly wasn't derived from that system. I'm not a mind reader, so how was I to work out that you'd arrived at that balance by dint of completely having failed to remember the history of the competition.


"Again, I was the one suggesting that, but you didn't like the outcome of that."

I have no issues with the outcome of that, I had an issue with a completely random allocation of teams that you plucked out of thin air.

Interestingly its you who now seem to be renouncing the UEFA style points system, because you don't like the outcome of reducing URC representation.


"4 teams for Top14, URC and Prem, 3 teams for other leagues and the last winner, what do you think?"

What about 4 each + 4 to the best performing teams in last years competition not to have otherwise qualified? Or what about a UEFA style system where places are allocated to leagues on the basis of their performance in previous years' competitions?

There's no point including Black Lion if they're just going to get whitewashed every year, which I think would be a possibility. At most I'd support 1 team from the Rugby Europe Super Cup, or the Russian Championship being included. Maybe the best placed non-Israeli team and the Russian winners could play off every year for the spot? But honestly I think its best if they stay limited to the Challenge Cup for now.

41 Go to comments
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