Uruguay u20 is set to square-off against South Africa in their opening match at the 2026 Junior World Championship in Georgia. Los Teritos will face the Baby Boks at Tbilisi’s Avchala Stadium on Saturday in a Pool A match. Uruguay and South Africa are joined by Georgia and Wales in Pool A. South Africa were tournament winners in 2012 and 2025 while Wales were runners-up in 2013.
Uruguay are back in the World Rugby Junior World Championship for the first time since their appearance in 2009 in which Los Teritos were relegated back to the World Rugby U20 Trophy.
The 2009 edition of the tournament saw Uruguay facing powerhouse opponents New Zealand, Ireland and Argentina in that order. Uruguay was overwhelmed first-up, losing 75-0 against New Zealand. Los Teritos then put on two much better performances in losing 16-11 to Ireland and 33-15 to Argentina.
In more recent years, Uruguay has shown genuine progress both at the Senior Men’s level and also in the u20’s. In addition to World Cup wins over Fiji and Namibia in 2019 and 2023, a notable national achievement occurred in 2023 when Uruguay defeated Scotland 37-26 in Nairobi, Kenya during the World Rugby u20 Trophy.
The Unión de Rugby del Uruguay (URU) have invested heavily in youth for their professional franchise team roster in Super Rugby Americas (SRA). This is clear with 17 out of the 23 named to play against South Africa having received game time in SRA 2026 for Peñarol.
The 17 are Justo Ferrario, Mateo Acosta, Nicolás Pittaluga, Sebastián Pérez, Juan Francisco Bessio, Nicolás Mattsson, Pedro Suárez, Alex Sonneveld, Manuel Ponte, Dario Rodríguez, Sebastián Dalmao Rivero, Guillermo Curuchet, Ignacio Merli, Mateo Ibarburu, and Juan Francisco Pereira.
Ferrario scored 90 points in the season. He was the first-choice fly half despite being a teenager. The investment in his future follows his test debut for Uruguay against Portugal in November 2025. He played center against Portugal that day as one of three debutants. One of the others was Jean Cotarmanac’h. His brother, Pierre Cotarmanac’h is on the bench against South Africa.
 LINE-UP |
URUGUAY
1 Germán González, 2 Sebastián Pérez, 3 Juan Francisco Bessio, 4 Nicolás Mattsson, 5 Piero Veglio, 6 Pedro Suárez, 7 Alex Sonneveld, 8 Manuel Ponte (capt.), 9 Mateo Ibarburu, 10 Justo Ferrario, 11 Bruno Primavesi, 12 Vicente Alvarez, 13 Mateo Acosta, 14 Bruno Baccino, 15 Nicolás Pittaluga
Replacements: 16 José Candia Sciarra, 17 Dario Rodríguez, 18 Sebastián Dalmao Rivero, 19 Guillermo Curuchet, 20 Ignacio Merli, 21 Pierre Cotarmanac’h, 22 Juan Francisco Pereira, 23 Joaquín Fresnedo
| URUGUAY POOL FIXTURES – JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP |
- South Africa U20 vs Uruguay U20 – Saturday, June 27, 2026 (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- Wales U20 vs Uruguay U20 – Thursday, July 2, 2026 (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
- Georgia U20 vs Uruguay U20 – Tuesday, July 7, 2026 (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi)
The post Uruguay u20 set for Junior World Championship opener against South Africa appeared first on Americas Rugby News.
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