Argentine Rugby Union

Argentine Rugby Union

Unión Argentina de Rugby
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	10 April 1899 (1899-04-10) (as "River Plate Rugby Championship")
IRB affiliation	1987
President	Luis Castillo
Men's coach	Santiago Phelan
Official website	uar.org.ar

The Argentine Rugby Union (Spanish: Unión Argentina de Rugby, abbreviated "UAR") is the governing body for Rugby union in Argentina. It is a member of the International Rugby Board with a seat on that body's Executive Council.

The UAR organises the Argentina national rugby union team, also known as Los Pumas.

History

Origins

The first rugby match in Argentina was played in 1873, in the Buenos Aires Cricket Club Ground sited in Palermo, Buenos Aires. Only 24 players (all of them were English) could met to dispute the match. The teams were named Bancos ("Banks" in Spanish) and Ciudad ("City") and formed with 11 and 13 players respectively.

That same year, another match was played in the Polo Field of Flores AC, in a land property of the Unzué family. The teams were called Inglaterra ("England") and El Mundo ("The World"). The first team was formed by Royal Navy officers that were temporarily in Buenos Aires, with the addition of some English citizens who resided in Argentina. Its rival was formed by English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people plus some Argentine-born players of English descent.

On May 14, 1874, the Rugby Football Union rules were adopted to play rugby in Argentina. Those rules were used for the first time during the match disputed at Buenos Aires Cricket Club between two teams from that institution. The teams were called El bando del Sr. Trench ("Mr. Trench's side"), and El bando del Sr. Hogg ("Mr. Hogg's side").

Nevertheless, other sources say that the first game under the rules of rugby was played on Thursday, 14 May 1874, in the David Mathven's country house, placed in Caballito, Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires FC also played the first inter-provincial rugby game in Argentina, when it faced Rosario AC in the city of Rosario, on 28 June 1886.

First championship

In 1899, clubs Belgrano AC, Rosario AC, Lomas AC, and Buenos Aires FC founded the "River Plate Rugby Championship", which would become today's Argentine Rugby Union. The body organized the first championship that same year, played by the four founding members. In the inaugural game, Lomas defeated Buenos Aires by 11-4. Lomas would be the first Argentine champion, winning the title at the end of the season.

The sport requested an affiliation with the International Olympic Committee (COI), who advised them to add Argentina to their name and so they became the "Unión Argentina de Rugby" on 29 November 1951.

This body, one of the oldest rugby unions in the world, became a member of the International Rugby Board (IRB) after being invited to the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.

When the rest of the rugby union world went professional in 1995, the UAR decided to keep the game amateur. Argentine players who opt to go overseas to play professionally (historically in Italy and France, with an increasing number today playing in England) remain eligible for national team selection (although this was not originally the case), and the current national team is heavily, though not exclusively, made up of European-based players.

The Rugby Championship

Argentina officially joined SANZAR, the body which operates Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union, in a meeting in Buenos Aires on November 23, 2011.

Names

The Union had different names through the years. Them are detailed below:

• River Plate Rugby Championship (1899-1908)
• The River Plate Rugby Union (1908–31)
• Unión de Rugby del Río de la Plata (1931–51)
• Unión Argentina de Rugby (1951–present)

Ranking

Argentina's IRB world ranking

Source: IRB - Updated to 06/30/2008

External links

• Official website