Uruguay hand Rugby World Cup veteran Barreiro head coach role with 2027 in sight

Guzmán Barreiro has been named head coach of Uruguay’s national rugby team, Los Teros, with the Uruguayan Rugby Union making the appointment just twelve months before the 2027 Rugby World Cup. He replaces Argentinian Rodolfo Ambrósio and takes full control over assembling his own coaching staff.

Barreiro brings deep institutional knowledge to the role. His senior coaching career began in the early 2010s at Montevideo’s Old Christians Club, where he won three national titles before joining the union in 2016 as an assistant under Esteban Meneses. He was part of the backroom team that guided Uruguay to their second-best World Cup performance in 2019, after which he was appointed High Performance director and also took charge of the U20 side. Many of the players he developed through that pathway will now fall under his leadership at senior level.

The union has moved to surround Barreiro with figures who carry significant weight in Uruguayan rugby. Los Teros legend Joaquín Pastore joins as assistant coach, while recently retired internationals Andrés Vilaseca and Gastón Mieres have also been added to the staff. The appointments reflect a deliberate effort to strengthen the connection between the national team and the grassroots game.

Barreiro is expected to oversee his first match in charge this Saturday, when Uruguay’s second side competes in the Americas Rugby Championship against Chile XV, Argentina XV, and Paraguay. The more significant early test arrives in November, when Los Teros travel to Europe to face Spain, Zimbabwe, and Portugal in the World Rugby Nations Cup. Uruguay currently sit last in the Americas-Pacific pool, which also includes Canada, Tonga, and Samoa.

Looking further ahead, Uruguay have already secured their place at the 2027 Rugby World Cup, having defeated Chile in the Sudamérica Rugby play-off. They were drawn into Pool C alongside Portugal, Scotland, and Ireland — a demanding group that underlines the scale of the task facing Barreiro as he steps up from assistant to head coach on rugby’s biggest stage.