Chile’s qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup brings almost immediate joy
After the Cóndores’ surprising victory against the USA Eagles, Chilean rugby fans will have several opportunities for instant pleasure, since the Chilean national team has now qualified as Americas 2 for Rugby World Cup 2023.
Pool D will include matches against new opponents England, Japan, and Samoa, as well as Argentina, putting the Chilean Condors among the best in preparation for the 2019 tournament in September in France.
As soon as the Americas 2 qualifier’s identity was revealed, relief began to flood in.
New Sports Minister Alexandra Benado, in welcoming the squad back to the nation, noted that preparations are ongoing to reconstruct Chile’s high performance center in the foothills of the Andes, overlooking the city of Santiago, even though the tears of the Chilean rugby community had not yet dried.
With World Rugby’s help, Lemoine’s side went from amateurs to pros in only four years.
After leading Uruguay to the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups, as well as the 2019 Rugby European Championship, he arrived in 2018 to a mammoth challenge of leading the team to France.
Chile Team
Early on, we picked out the guys with the highest development potential. If you want to choose the greatest player, you need to find out whether or not he is ready to do the necessary steps “What happened, Lemoine detailed.
“Even the greatest among us can’t always pull ourselves out of bad stretches or cope with several challenges at once.
“Only the strong can overcome adversity.”
Having this resiliency ingrained in the young minds of his group was vital.
Maintain a firm stance at all times.
Although they lost their home game in Santiago due to the rain, they still considered it a triumph since they only trailed by one point when they headed to Colorado.
I had a lot of hope that we would be successful in the United States,” Lemoine remarked.
We would defeat them if, with solid reserves in the last 20 minutes of the game, we were still in it.
They won the second test of the home-and-away series at Infinity Park after coming back from 20 points behind with 50 minutes still to play.
Referee Luke Pearce gave a penalty close range to the effective AJ McGinty with 90 seconds remaining and the USA Eagles behind by two points.
The penalty was overturned by the TMO owing to foul play just as he was about to tee off, costing the United States a chance to go to the World Cup. An explosion of happiness spread over Chile.
Once again, Pablo Lemoine will lead an underdog national side to the Rugby World Cup. “If they had taken those three points and we still had a minute to play, we would have won it,” he says.
Soon after, Santiago Videla booted for touch and the subsequent celebration caused a lineout to break down. Lock Clemente Saavedra recovered the ball. The winger who also scored a try, converted all four of his team’s tries, and added the game-winning penalty in the 75th minute kicked his last ball.
Bench
Chile had sent out its best XI in the first half of the first leg, and for the second leg, the squad utilized a mixture of fresh legs in the first hour and the cavalry in the second half. Lemoine and his competent staff of subordinates were certain that they could defeat Gary Gold’s team.
Using “every player,” he argued, was a positive move.
Major League Rugby hooker Augusto Böhme, who finished the game against his usual opponents, was overjoyed. “This is something you’ve waited a lifetime for,” he said. With the Rugby World Cup in reach, we can now say that.
“The backing of Sudamérica Rugby was crucial to our victory today. It took quite some time and effort. We may not have state-of-the-art equipment or sufficient resources, but we make up for it with our people. Let’s take advantage of the time we have left until the next World Cup begins in little over a year.
His gimmick Matas Dittus shared their elation. With a try to cap off a strong second half, he said, “It’s been a long four years of hard work. This is and always will be one of the most significant days of my life.
I thought it was a really well thought out game. We trusted our coaches implicitly and proceeded cautiously. It’s a wrap!”
Selknam
Taking Selknam, their Superliga Americana de Rugby franchise, out of the equation would have changed the outcome.
A chance to work closely with a large number of players on a daily basis presented itself with the Chilean squad, which finished in first place out of six teams in the area in this year’s championship.
Players evolved, and new combinations were discovered. Rodrigo Fernández’s try in the first game, when he slid past nine tacklers in the pouring rain, left many in amazement; in Glendale, he set up another. Simply, he was repeating the form that had helped him improve from SLAR game to game.
Take Alfonso Escobar’s younger brother Diego, a hooker at age 21. Every chance he had, he took, and his team’s improvement was on full display as a result.
At the final whistle, his father Alfonso was one of the first to go out onto the field and participate in the wild celebrations. Alfonso had captained Chile in two unsuccessful RWC qualification campaigns.
Chile’s rise to the top means the country’s rugby team will soon compete on the international stage. High-performance coordinator Daniel Hourcade has spent the previous five years working closely with Chile Rugby and Lemoine.
He explains the victory by saying “tactical, strategic, technological, and physical grounds” contributed to the triumph.
All of it took a lot of time and effort, and it was done well. Nonetheless, the primary issue, the key to their qualifying, has been confidence, a strong head, and helping the players believe in themselves.
With the Eagles on top in both games, Chile retained its composure and continued battling. This is how Los Cóndores accomplished their goals.
“Everyone should be commended for their efforts. This victory did not come as a complete shock since the confidence was already there. The Union’s staff, players, leadership, and support. All of this is necessary for making these huge advances.
Pressure
In conclusion,” Lemoine continues, “we accomplished a really nice job, with a fantastic program that regulated the players, made them better. More time was given to us than any other Tier 2 country, and we were able to get things sorted out. Even COVID was useful, since it allowed us to practice without the stress of competition for a long period of time. This was accelerated by SLAR.
So that the Rugby World Cup can be the best it can be, we will now get support from World Rugby.
Chile’s international athletic achievements will bring the country more public and private funding, and increase participation rates.
“I don’t know how many people realize the strain we were under to get here,” Lemoine continues. If we hadn’t qualified, we wouldn’t have been able to expand.
