SLAR: South America's first professional league

4 March 2020 will go down as a special day in South American rugby history as Peñarol Rugby and Selknam Rugby kick off the very first professional league on the continent.

The Inaugural Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) season kicks off between the Uruguayan vs Chilean side on Wednesday evening.

Penarol is an old sporting club situated approximately 10 kilometres from Montevideo and is coached by former Argentinian international, Pablo Bouza with veteran Alejandro Nieto captains the side from the second row.

Selknam was founded in 2019 and based in Santiago, Chile. They are coached by former Uruguayan Pablo Leimoine and will be captained by flanker Ignacio Silva will run out as captain.

One of the more popular names in the opening fixture is that of Santiago Arata, who was a standout for Uruguay at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

The 2020 season it will be contested by five teams with a team each from Argentina (Ceibos), Brazil (Corinthians), Chile (Selknam), Paraguay (Olimpia Lions), and Uruguay (Peñarol) with a future team from Colombia (Cafeteros Pro) joining in 2021 after playing an exhibition series against the 5th-placed team at the end of the season later in May 2020.

The competition will span four months from February through May. will span four months from February through May. For the first season, five of the six clubs Ceibos , Corinthians, Selknam, Olimpia Lions, and Peñarol[6] will take part in a double round-robin regular season, playing twice against each other team, once at home and once away, for a total of eight games.

Stay up to date with the league, see all the teams and more here

Sources: Americas Rugby News, Marca, La Nación 

Image: Peñarol Rugby/Twitter