
Uruguay kicked off their campaign to qualify for a third successive Rugby World Cup with a 71-3 defeat of Brazil in the South American Championship - the latest stage of qualifying in the Americas - in Montevideo on Wednesday.
Los Teros ran in 10 tries - five in each half - against a Brazilian side beaten 79-3 by Chile at the weekend with full back Jeronimo Etcheverry giving the hosts the perfect start with a try in the first minute at the Charrúa Stadium.
Number 8 Rodrigo Capó grabbed a brace of tries, before tries from scrum half Juan Campomar and captain Joaquin Pastore, together with a penalty from Matías Fonseca extended Uruguay's lead to 36-0 at half-time.
Brazil did score first in the second half when fly half Lucas Duque kicked a drop goal, but within minutes Capó had completed his hat-trick with Ignacio Conti, Santiago Gibernau (2) and Francisco de Posadas also crossing the try-line for Uruguay.
The defeat ends Brazil's involvement in the qualifying process for Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand, a campaign which had begun back in June with victory in the South American B Championship and seen them beat Caribbean champions Trinidad & Tobago in a two-legged play-off in October to take their place alongside Chile and Uruguay.
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Pierre Paparemborde's side will now turn their attention to ending the South American Championship on a high with victory over Paraguay, a side they beat 15-6 to win the B division in Asuncion last year.
Uruguay though will meet long-time rivals Chile at the same venue on Saturday with the winner to face either Canada or USA - whoever loses their two-legged play-off in July - for the right to qualify as Americas 2 and join Australia, Ireland, Italy and Europe 2 qualifier in Pool C in New Zealand.
Chile were also in action on Wednesday against Paraguay in a match which is not part of the qualifying process. Los Cóndores ran out 34-14 winners with wing Juan Pablo León scoring two of their five tries.
Javier Valderrama scored Chile's opening try and also kicked a penalty as his side led 24-0 at the break, before Paraguay narrowed the gap with a Hugo Centurion penalty and try from prop Fernando Recalde.
Centre Rodrigo Coda and hooker Alejandro Ríos restored Chile's advantage with tries before Centurion kicked another penalty seven minutes from time for the game's final score.
Chile coach Daniel Graco wasn't entirely happy with the performance, admitting: "It wasn't our best game. We made some errors, it was stop-start and we gave away more penalties. The positive aspect is that we didn't pick up any injuries."





