UAR · History

The Argentine Rugby Union (Unión Argentina de Rugby, UAR) was founded on 10 April 1899 in Buenos Aires as The River Plate Rugby Union. It was set up by a group of British-rooted clubs, among them Belgrano, Lomas, Buenos Aires and Rosario, and its first president was Leslie Corry Smith. The union’s first tournament was played that same year and won by Lomas. It is the governing body of rugby in Argentina, with its headquarters in Martínez, Buenos Aires Province.

From River Plate Rugby Union to UAR

In its early decades the body reflected the weight of the British community in Argentine sport. In 1931 it took the Spanish name Unión de Rugby del Río de la Plata. On 29 November 1951 it became the Unión Argentina de Rugby, the name it has carried ever since. The change went hand in hand with the spread of the game beyond Buenos Aires and Rosario into the provinces. Its federal structure rests on 25 affiliated regional unions.

The national team and the Pumas name

Argentina played its first test on 12 June 1910 against a touring combined British side, losing 28-3. The nickname dates from 1965, during the team’s first overseas tour, to Rhodesia and South Africa: journalist Carl Kohler mistook the big cat on the crest, a jaguar, for a puma. The name stuck and the players embraced it. Since 1986 Vélez Sarsfield’s José Amalfitani Stadium has been one of the grounds most often used for tests.

Joining the international game

The UAR was invited to the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 and joined the International Rugby Board, renamed World Rugby in 2014, that year. In 1988 it took part in founding the South American confederation, which later adopted the name Sudamérica Rugby. A meeting held in Buenos Aires on 23 November 2011 opened the door to The Rugby Championship, which Argentina first played in 2012, drawing 16-16 with South Africa. The first win in the competition came in 2014, 21-17 against Australia. Since 2016 the UAR has been a full member of SANZAAR.

World Cup record

The best World Cup finish came at France 2007: after losing the semi-final to South Africa, the Pumas beat France to take third place. In 2015 they reached another semi-final and finished fourth. In 2023, again in France, they lost the semi-final 44-6 to New Zealand and ended the tournament in fourth. In between, on 14 November 2020, the side recorded its first win over the All Blacks, 25-15.

Jaguares and professional rugby

In 2016 the UAR created the Jaguares franchise to compete in Super Rugby, based in Buenos Aires and with players contracted by the union itself. The team reached the 2019 final, losing 19-3 to the Crusaders in Christchurch on 6 July, the first Super Rugby final for an Argentine side. Alongside it, the high-performance pathway was built around regional centres and teams such as Argentina XV, winners of the Americas Rugby Championship and the Tbilisi Cup.

Sevens, age-grade teams and domestic competitions

The sevens team has played in the World Series since 1999. It finished third in the 2003-04 series and runner-up at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens. At the Tokyo Olympics, held in July 2021, it won the bronze medal by beating Great Britain 17-12, Argentine rugby’s first Olympic medal. The age-grade side finished third at the 2003 Under-21 World Championship and at the 2016 junior world championship, where it beat South Africa 49-19. At home, the UAR ran the Campeonato Argentino between provincial unions from 1945 to 2017, and in 1993 it launched the Torneo Nacional de Clubes.