Hours before the kick-off of what proved a very successful first World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo, rugby in Uruguay received two very good pieces of news. 

First, World Rugby announced that next year's U20 Trophy will be held in the country, fulfilling an old dream. Secondly, the government, through its Secretaría Nacional del Deporte National Sports Bureau (Senade), announced that it had chosen rugby as one of 11 sports to support. In fact, rugby is now second amongst the sports in terms of registered players. 

In the recent elections, rugby fulfilled the required criteria to join athletics, basketball, beach volley, women's soccer, gymnastics, handball, field hockey, swimming, rowing and tennis in receiving assistance. The main criteria were the number of registered players; access to the sport for women; facilities and organisation; frequency and standard of competitions; a nationwide footprint; the chance to gain success in international tournaments and the upholding of sporting tradition. And, according to Alberto Espasandín, who runs federal sports at the Senade, the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay is a model federation.

"They work seriously, planning and developing. In almost every city in the country we'll find people playing rugby and it is one of the more professional governance,' he told El Observador. 

According to data provided by Senade, there are 7,444 male and 297 female players, putting rugby behind only soccer and basketball, the latter with less registered players but a number of independent leagues that boost player numbers.

"The fact they (the rugby union) took possession of the Charrúa Stadium has been crucial. They have good support from World Rugby, and they promote the game in underprivileged neighbourhoods, playing throughout the country and changing general perception of them being an elitist sport to now being a popular sport," added Espasandín, referring largely to the strong uptake of the Get Into Rugby mass participation programme and its application as a wider social mobility vehicle.

With the growth of the Charrúa Stadium and its High Performance Centre, there is still a lot of activity left for the union to point to before the end of a long season.

Whilst Uruguay A has finished its participation in the hugely successful Americas Pacific Challenge, a Uruguay XV will play in Argentina’s National Provincial Championship and Los Teros will tour Europe.

The first half of 2017 promises to be even busier: Uruguayan clubs will cross the River Plate to play in the National Club Championship in neighbouring Argentina and there will be the second edition of the Americas Rugby Championship, as well as the start of the qualifying journey which will hopefully lead them to the promised land and Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.