Argentine Rugby Union

National rugby union
unionname = Argentine Rugby Union
nativename = Unión Argentina de Rugby

logosize = 90px
founded = 1899
IRB = 1987
region =
regionyear =
president = Porfirio Carreras
coach = flagicon|ARG Santiago Phelan
womenscoach =
country

url = www.uar.com.arThe Argentine Rugby Union ( _es. Unión Argentina de Rugby ("UAR")) is the governing body for rugby union in Argentina. It is a member of the International Rugby Board with a seat on that body's Executive Council.

The UAR organises the Argentina national rugby union team, also known as "Los Pumas".

History

The first rugby match in Argentina was played in 1873, the game having been brought to Argentina by British and Irish settlers. It was 26 years later, in 1899, that four clubs in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires got together to form the River Plate Rugby Football Union.

The sport requested an affiliation with the Argentine Olympic Committee (COI), who advised them to add Argentina to their name and so they became the Union Argentina de Rugby (UAR) on 29 November 1951.

This body, one of the oldest rugby unions in the world, became a member of the International Rugby Board (IRB) after being invited to the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.

When the rest of the rugby union world went professional in 1995, the UAR decided to keep the game in Argentina amateur. Argentine players who opt to go overseas to play professionally (historically in Italy and France, with an increasing number today playing in England) remain eligible for national team selection (although this was not originally the case), and the current national team is heavily, though not exclusively, made up of European-based players.

External links

*es icon [http://www.uar.com.ar Home page of the UAR]
*es icon [http://www.rugbytime.com/ Rugby time] Argentine Rugby Site