Uruguay press ahead but Pumas are in quarantine

EVERYBODY is scrambling to try to make things work in this mad Covid affected sporting world and from Uruguay comes the news that they will attempt to play the South American Championship as a one-off quadrangular tournament in Montevideo next month.

Uruguay, Chile, Brazil and an Argentinian XV will meet in a condensed eight-day tournament with games on October 18, 21 and 24 at the Estadio Charrúa. The teams arrived in Montevideo on Friday to begin their two-week quarantine period but no decision has been made yet as to whether a limited number of fans will be allowed.

Meanwhile no team anywhere in the world seems to have been more affected than the Pumas who have been in camp in Buenos Aires ahead of their planned participation in the Rugby Championship. To date no fewer than five coaches and 16 players have tested positive over the last two or three weeks.

Almost to a man they were completely asymptomatic but all have had to self-isolate which has badly disrupted the planned training schedule.

The coaches involved are Mario Ledesma, Nicolás Fernández Miranda,

and Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Marcelo Loffreda and Martín Mackey and the players who tested positive were Tomás Cubelli, Felipe Ezcurra, Matías Moroni, Matías Orlando, Mateo Carreras, Rodrigo Fernández Criado, Lucas Bur, Bautista Pedemonte, Juan Cruz Mallía, Emiliano

Boffelli, Bautista Delguy, Javier Ortega Desio, Federico Wegrzyn, José Luis González, Tomás Lezana, and Santiago Carreras.

The optimist would say it’s better to test positive now, well ahead of the tournament, than when on the road in Australia but its alarming nonetheless.