Rugby World Cup favourites Chile or Uruguay set for date with international giant – report

Adam Kyriacou
Uruguay and Chile were success stories at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Uruguay and Chile were success stories at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

France could take on either Chile or Uruguay as part of Les Bleus’ visit to Argentina later this year, with an announcement reportedly set to be made this coming Monday.

According to Rugby Rama, the La Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) and French Rugby Federation (FFR) are currently in discussions over the availability of players on the tour.

France will face off with Los Pumas in Argentina on Saturday, July 6 and Saturday, July 13, with a third game against an as yet unknown international team set to be unveiled.

World Cup favourites

The prospect of the recent Rugby World Cup hosts taking on either Chile or Uruguay in an international game would be a big step in the right director for so-called Tier 2 sides.

Chile and Uruguay became fan favourites at the tournament on French soil, with their performances catching the eye of supporters as they pushed Tier 1 outfits in the pools.

While Chile did not manage to win a Pool D match in 2023, they performed admirably against Japan (42-12), Samoa (43-10), England (71-0) and Argentina (59-5) in France.

Los Teros meanwhile picked up a 36-26 victory over Namibia while their other Pool A games saw them lose 27-12 to hosts France, 38-17 to Italy and 73-0 to New Zealand.

A further development, according to Americas Rugby News, is that advanced talks are currently taking place for Uruguay to take on Argentina in 2024 and annually thereafter.

Since the 2023 Rugby World Cup the hope has been that nations such as Uruguay and Chile and the likes of Portugal are able to regularly face top ranked teams in the world.

Portugal to face Boks

The recent announcement that the world champion Springboks will meet Portugal for the first time on Saturday, July 20 at a venue to be named felt like a landmark moment.

Portugal contributed to memorable matches at the World Cup with a thrilling draw against Georgia and 24-23 win over Fiji in their final pool game a huge achievement.

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