Australia vs Uruguay - Match Preview

The challenge for the Wallabies against Uruguay on Sunday is similar to that of the All Blacks against

Namibia on Thursday. For the Wallabies it is a box to be ticked on the way to the decisive games against

England and then Wales, and an opportunity to give game-time to those in the squad who didn’t play against

Fiji. For the Uruguay players the opportunity to play against one of the world’s great rugby nations in a

World Cup offers one of the most memorable experiences of their lives.

Of the 31 in Uruguay’s squad, 27 are amateur rugby players, either students or with day jobs. Captain

Santiago Vilaseca, for example, has taken two month’s unpaid leave to be at the World Cup.

An emotional, highly motivated Uruguay team will play their hearts out and leave nothing out there on the

pitch. They will hope to keep the Wallaby score down and to score at least one try themselves. Australia will

try to continue to build momentum for the massive clashes to come, but playing Uruguay will not provide

the most effective preparation for the challenge of England and Wales.

Key players:

For Uruguay, captain Vilaseca and their four professional players, flyhalf Felipe Berchesi, tighthead Mario

Sagario, scrumhalf Agustin Ormaechea (who all play in France) and fullback Gaston Mieres (who plays in

Italy). For Australia, Nick Phipps and Quade Cooper, trying to stake their claim to the 9 and 10 positions for

the bigger games ahead, Kurtley Beale, keen to show he would be an asset to the first-choice XV, and an

ostensibly unbalanced loose-forward trio, with Ben McCalman at blindside, Sean MacMahon at openside,

and Wycliff Palu at 8.

The big match-ups:

Uruguay’s four pro players offer the best match-ups: French Pro D2-contracted Berchesi and Ormaechea –

best friends, incidentally, since they were two years old – team up as a duo in a match-up with Cooper and

Phipps. Sagario (also Pro D2) vs Scitt Sio. Mieres (Valpolicella) vs Beale.