Outlook Uruguay – Rugby World Cup 2027 Player Roster Radar

Uruguay will compete at Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia. Los Teros qualified as Sudamerica 1 by virtue of defeating Paraguay at the Semi Final stage and then beating Chile on aggregate in the Final. What is the outlook for Uruguay’s player roster at Rugby World Cup 2027? This article analyzes the potential roster as by looking contemporarily and with an eye on the Australia-hosted tournament in late 2027.

TEROS PLAYERS OUT SINCE RWC 2023

Who will not be playing for Los Teros at Rugby World Cup 2027? There is a sizable number of players who have retired or are now out of the picture. Veteran prop Matías Benítez has retired as have second-rowers Eric Dosantos and Diego Magno.

In the backs, boyhood friends Agustín Ormaechea and Felipe Berchesi are no longer playing for Los Teros. They played at Rugby World Cups 2015, 2019 and 2023. The versatile Tomás Inciarte has not played for Uruguay for more than a year now and nor has Nicolás Freitas. Lastly, wingers Rodrigo Silva and Gastón Mieres have both retirned.

The following table displays Uruguay’s top players across three line-ups. The players included are based on roster selection and team lists under Rodolfo Ambrosio over the past year.

#	TEAM 1	TEAM 2	TEAM 3
1	Mateo Sanguinetti	Francisco Suárez	Mateo Perillo
2	Germán Kessler	Guillermo Pujadas	Facundo Gatas
3	Ignacio Péculo	Reinaldo Piussi	Diego Arbelo
4	Felipe Aliaga	Ignacio Dotti	Federico de Los Santos *
5	Manuel Leindekar	Juan Manuel Rodríguez	Agustín Morales *
6	Manuel Ardao	Santiago Civetta	Manuel Rosmarino
7	Lucas Bianchi	Franco Bertini *	Francisco Gallo *
8	Manuel Diana	Carlos Deus	Arturo Ten Hoever *
9	Santiago Arata	Santiago Álvarez	Juan Manuel Taffernaberry
10	Felipe Etcheverry	Ícaro Amarillo	Francisco Landauer *
11	Baltazar Amaya	Ignacio Álvarez Akiki	Diego Ardao
12	Andrés Vilaseca	Joaquin Suárez	Juan Zuccarino
13	Felipe Arcos Pérez	Juan Manuel Alonso	Alonso Perillo Albarracin
14	Bautista Basso	Ignacio Facciolo	Mateo Viñals
15	Juan Gonzalez	Juan Bautista Hontou	Justo Ferrario *

* denotes player is uncapped.

MOST STARTS OVER PAST YEAR

Under Ambrosio the captaincy has passed from Andrés Vilaseca to Manuel Leindekar. This was initially due to injury but is now permanent. Leindekar captained a relatively stable Uruguay side in the 2024 November Internationals against Spain in Madrid, Japan in France and Romania in Bucharest.

The tour saw opportunities with Facundo Gattas, Germán Kessler, Manuel Ardao, Santiago Arata, Tomás Inciarte, Felipe Etcheverry, Nicolás Freitas and Andrés Vilaseca all out. As a result, Santiago Álvarez was the goal-kicker and starting scrum-half. Ignacio Álvarez Akiki was fly half against Spain and Ícaro Amarillo took over against Japan and Romania.

Felipe Arcos Pérez and Bautista Basso were constants in the backline while flankers Santiago Civetta and Lucas Bianchi and front-rowers Mateo Sanguinetti, Guillermo Pujadas, and Ignacio Peculo started every match.

Uruguay faced Romania at home and Argentina away in July 2025. Twelve players started both matches for Los Teros. Rotation followed with more opportunities and some position shifting for the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers against Paraguay in Asunción and Montevideo. Notwithstanding, backs Santiago Álvarez, Ignacio Álvarez Akiki Bautista Basso and Juan González started all four of these matches.

Finally, Ambrosio fielded fourteen of the same fifteen starting matches in Uruguay’s Rugby World Cup against Chile in Santiago and Montevideo. The only change to the starting XV was Baltazar Amaya playing wing away and Ignacio Álvarez Akiki starting at home. The change was injury motivated. The series also saw Uruguay with access to all players which notably saw Santiago Arata back from Castres.

RWC 2027 SELECTION RADAR

Rugby World Cup 2011 featured 30-men per roster. The number increased to 31 for Rugby World Cups 2015 and 2019. The number increased to 33 for Rugby World Cup 2023. 33 is therefore the number used in this article to piece together Los Teros’ selection radar for Australia 2027.

Ambrosio selected a 36-man roster for the July Internationals. It contained five props, three hookers, five second-rowers, six back-rowers, two scrum-halves, three fly halves, four centers, three wingers and three fullbacks. Within the roster there were also utility players and this continued with changes for RWC Qualifying. This has been taken into account when compiling the selection radar as displayed in the following table.

POS = Position
QTY = Quantity

URUGUAY’S PROJECTED RWC 2027 LINE-UP

Rugby World Cup 2023 featured four pools of five teams each. Rugby World Cup 2027 will feature an even number of four teams per pool spread across six pools. One result of the expansion is that teams from the same pool will be able to play on the same day.

The ability to evenly spread matches will decrease the need for teams to rotate or juggle their players during the group stage. As such, teams ought to, in theory, be able to field their top line-up throughout the pool stage with few rather than many changes.

Uruguay’s Rugby World Cup 2019 campaign saw matches against Fiji on September 25 and Georgia on September 29. Thirteen Uruguay players started both matches. The searing heat of Kumagaya forced water breaks during Georgia vs Uruguay at the midpoint of each half for the first time in the tournament. With only three days rest following their historic win over Fiji, Los Teros simply could not summon the strength to compete with the power of the Lelo forwards.