Spain’s heavy loss at the hands of Romania on the opening weekend of the World Rugby Nations Cup saw them lose 0.51 of a rating point to drop to 21st in the World Rugby Rankings with Uruguay taking their place in 20th – despite also being defeated 19-10 by Georgia in their first Tbilisi Cup match.
Los Teros, who have qualified for the World Cup finals for the third time in their history, have already played eight Tests in the past three months and face two more Tbilisi Cup outings, first against a strong Emerging Ireland side and then Emerging Italy, who were defeated 25-0 by the Irish on Saturday.
Pablo Lemoine’s team showed their forward might and battling spirit in their test with Georgia. Uruguay found themselves 10-points down after 12 minutes but fought back with a penalty from Ormaechea Piazza and a penalty try.
His side’s only wins this year have come against Paraguay (77-3) and Brazil (48-9), but the last five games have all ended in defeat. A 13-3 reverse against a USA XV was followed by a disappointing 30-15 home loss to Chile. An Argentina XV went away with a 36-14 triumph and May ended with two games against Fiji Warriors.
The south sea islanders’ managed to win both games reasonably comfortably, although Uruguay managed to score three tries in each game. The Warriors won the first game 30-22 and the second 42-22. Los Teros battled back from being down 34-3 in the second game as they used the power of their pack to pin down the Fijians.
But they will want to enter the Twickenham showcase in good form if they are to build on their pair of World Cup wins against Spain in 1999 and Georgia in 2003.
