Uruguay's men's Sevens team added a Challenger Series match in Munich to their overall victory, defeating tournament hosts Germany in a tense 21-19 final in the Bavarian capital.
Tries from Felipe Arcos Pérez, captain Diego Ardão and Juan Gonzalez were eventually enough to see off a highly motivated Germany in a packed Dunstadion north of the city centre.
Germany did not go down without a fight in front of their own fans, with a five-pointer from Lewis Diehl and a brace from star player Makonnen Amekwede putting them within two points of the South Americans.
Uruguay now qualifies as the top seed for the HSBC SVNS promotion qualifiers in Madrid later this year. Germany, Kenya and Chile also qualify for Madrid.
Vamos Los Terros 🇺🇾
Uruguay is #7sChallengerSeries The champions are in Munich, unbeaten over the weekend 🙌 pic.twitter.com/BD75GvUM20
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) May 19, 2024
“I feel proud of the team, very proud of the team, of our staff, of our friends who stayed home but were in the team,” said captain Diego Ardão. “We trained hard. We worked for it and we achieved our goals, which is to be champions here and qualify for Real Madrid. So I'm very happy and as I said, I'm very proud of the team.”
“Our first goal was to be in Madrid. Now that we are in Madrid, we want to be in the quarter-finals with whoever team faces us, and we need this win. We need to win this game, so we can get back in the series again.
Reaching the HSBC SVNS top flight is a big carrot for the Uruguay team.
“This will be confirmation that we are a great rugby nation. We were already there last year. It was unfortunate that we had to be relegated, but those were the rules and as I said, we need confirmation that we are a great rugby nation, so we want to be there in the series.” once again.
Ardao poignantly held up the No. 10 shirt while posing for photos with the trophy. “The shirt belongs to our teammate [Baltazar Amaya] Who was injured in the nose. He suffered a broken nose in the first match. He is a very valuable player for us, a great friend and we miss him. He had to take a plane back to Uruguay to have surgery on his nose. He couldn't be in the final or any of the other matches, which is why we put his shirt there.
Chile lost the third place match with Hong Kong China, but decisively qualified for the play-offs.
“We're really happy about that [qualifying for Madrid]“But I think we could have left Munich feeling better as a team,” Nikola Jaravlik said. “We lost a couple of guys on the way. We hope they improve until we go with a full team, but overall we are happy to be in Madrid.
“We talked about the situation. At this level, the situation is not enough. We need to see what the agreement is with that…we have with the individuals who got the team to this situation, in the games we lost.
Chile can now look forward to competing in the much larger stadium that is Atletico Madrid's Civitas Metropolitano.
“On Sunday we went to the Allianz Arena, it's amazing here. So I was trying to imagine what Madrid would be like. I went with my team to the Rugby World Cup recently, I know how it goes, but it's all about the stadium. There are always a lot of people Cheering, all the fans, all the fans, but once the match starts, the game can be just as difficult if you can play without people, or as with a large crowd.
Vincent Onyala from Kenya said Rugby Pass After the win over Uganda in the fifth-place match in Munich: “We are definitely happy, because by beating Uganda now, we have secured the top four. Now we are just waiting to see what Madrid has to offer us. Hopefully we can get there and build on our little moments and then see ourselves.” Back in the HSBC SVNS series.
“It's going to be big. Our program will grow. The players coming through will experience what it's like to play with the best and we'll build on that from here.”
Kenya received the best support in Munich, where Germany came in second place.
“I can remember against Germany, they had home advantage, but you can see by our fans, it was like we had home advantage. This gives us the mood to play and always give our best and represent our country.
“Rugby has grown globally and having the Challenger Series to enhance the World Series brings competition and grows the game as a whole.”
