RWC: Uruguay win last spot
Uruguay became the 20th and last team to qualify for the 2015 World Cup in England when they beat Russia 36-27.
Los Teros qualify by being eight points ahead on aggregate after Russia won the first leg 22-21 in cold Krasnoyarsk. But they had to come from beyond to secure their place. This means they will attend their third World Cup after being there in 1999 in Wales and 2003 in Australia.
Uruguay slot into Pool A with Australia, Wales, England and Fiji.
Unlike Siberia, Montevideo was warm and a record crowd for a rugby match in Uruguay – 14 000 – loudly supported their team. President José Mujica was at the match in Charrúa Stadium.
At half-time Russia led 17-12. Flyhalves Yuri Kushnarev and Felipe Berchesi exchanged penalties till the score was 12-12 with Russian prop Andrei Igretsov in the sin bin for repeatedly collapsing the scrum. Just before the break Kushnarev opted to run a penalty. He passed to scrumhalf Aleksandr Ianushkin who scored in the corner. After 120 minutes of rugby between the two sides, Russia had scored two tries, Uruguay none.
Kushnarev in creased the Russian lead with an early penalty in the second half. 20-12.
But soon after this Berchesi started a counterattack from well inside his half. Scrumhalf Agustín Ormaechea raced ahead and gave to centre Joaquín Prada who scored under the posts. The conversion made it 20-19 to Russia.
Then Los Teros took the lead. Their forwards marched over the line for a credited to prop Alejo Corral. Uruguay led 26-20 with 23 minutes left.
Ormaechea, son of Diego who was the oldest player at the 1999 World Cup, made the game safe scored from, a set scrum.
Russia did not give up and with both sides a man sin-binned, Vasily Artemyev scored a try, after which Berchesi kicked another penalty to end the scoring, send Uruguayans into rapture and made straight the road to England.
Scorers:
For Uruguay:
Tries: Prada, Corral, Ormaechea
Cons: Berchesi 3
Pens: Berchesi 5
For Russia:
Tries: Ianushkin, Artemyev
Con: Kushnarev
Pens: Kushnarev: 5
Teams
Uruguay: 15 Gastón Mieres, 14 Santiago Gibernau, 13 Joaquín Prada, 12 Alberto Román, 11 Jeronimo Etcheverry, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Agustín Ormaechea, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 7 Diego Magno, 6 Juan Gaminara, 5 Rodrigo Capó, 4 Santiago Vilaseca, 3 Oscar Durán, 2 Nicolás Klappenbach, 1 Alejo Corral
Replacements: 16 Arturo Avalo, 17 Carlos Arboeya, 18 Franco Lamanna, 19 Mathias Palomeque, 20 Juan de Freitas, 21 Leandro Leivas, 22 Alejo Duran
Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev, 14 Denis Simplikevich, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 12 Dimitry Gerasimov, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Yuri Kushnarev, 9 Alexander Ianyushkin, 8 Viktor Gresev, 7 Andrei Ostrikov, 6 Andrei Temnov, 5 Kirill Kulemin, 4 Alexander Voytov (captain), 3 Andrei Igretsov, 2 Valery Tsnobiladze, 1 Grigory Tsnobiladze.
Replacements: 16 Vladislav Korshunov, 17 Evgeni Pronenko, 18 Andrei Garbuzov, 19 Pavel Butenko, 20 Igor Klyuchnikov, 21 Alexey Shcherban, 22 Ramil Gaisin
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
