Uruguay excited to face All Blacks for the first time at the Rugby World Cup
After plotting and scheming and hatching ways to contain New Zealand, Uruguay's Los Teros couldn't help but reveal their inner fan boys at the prospect of facing the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup on Thursday.
The pool match in Lyon will be an historic first between them.
“As a player, for me it is a dream,” Uruguay captain Andres Vilaseca says. “You grow up watching the All Blacks on TV. Except in a World Cup, I doubt there will be an opportunity like this.”
Esteban Meneses, Uruguay's coach for nearly eight years, says, “Analyzing them is a dream. They do the simple perfectly. It is a professional challenge, a luxury, and I am very grateful to be in this situation.”
Vilaseca says they have a surprise in store for when they face their first All Blacks haka.
“The idea is to enjoy it,” he says. “Seeing the haka on TV makes your skin crawl, it is a tremendous moment, and we are going to be in front of it. It won't shrink us, it will motivate us.”
NEW ZEALAND vs. URUGUAY (First meeting)
Both teams go into their last pool game in quarterfinal contention, though New Zealand is a lot closer to clinching than Uruguay. New Zealand needs a win with a four-tries bonus point. Uruguay's minimum requirement is to beat New Zealand by 80 points.
It's instructive that on the four occasions the Uruguayans met the other southern hemisphere giants South Africa (last time in 2005) and Australia (last time in 2019), they lost them all by an average of 49.8 points.
“It is very difficult to set a goal in terms of the result against a great team,” Vilaseca says. “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.”
The Uruguayans have given a good account of themselves in Pool A. Namibia was overcome last week for a third Los Teros win in tournament history, France was given a proper scare, and Italy was led at halftime. They have nine tries, all from set-piece ball. Their previous best Rugby World Cup total was six in 2003 and 2019.
“It is the perfect match to close the World Cup and this cycle,” Vilaseca says. “We will enjoy it to the fullest, fighting them at everything and making it difficult. We will continue to show how much Uruguay has grown.”
The All Blacks love novelty, love doing something a first time. Los Teros will be the first new team they have faced since Georgia at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks played in Montevideo once and beat a Uruguay XV 64-3 in a non-cap match in 1976, almost to the day.
Aside from securing a quarterfinal, they are also motivated to extend the rush they got from smashing Italy 96-17 last week with another performance of determination and rhythm.
Prop Ofa Tu'ungafasi says its always tough to prepare for a game that everyone expects you to win easily. Stones can be left unturned. “But for as long as I've been in this (All Blacks) environment, it's about our standards and that's what's important to us,” he says. “No matter who we play, our attention and our focus is to go out there and play to our standards and have a performance we can be proud of.”
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AP Rugby World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
