Uruguay and Chile will once again battle for the Sudamérica Rugby A Championship crown in 2017 after overcoming Brazil and Paraguay respectively to remain unbeaten after two rounds.

In an entertaining game of rugby, Los Teros emerged the 41-27 winners over Brazil at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo, while Chile were more convincingly 66-7 winners over Paraguay, the lowest ranked team in the tournament, at the Estadio Municipal de La Pintana.

The two unbeaten sides will now come face to face in Montevideo next Saturday to determine not only the champion but also the team that will continue on the road to Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.

The winner will progress to a home and away play-off with either Canada or USA to determine the Americas 2 qualifier who will slot into Pool D at Japan 2019. Canada and USA meet in a two-legged play-off on 24 June and 1 July for a place in Pool C as the Americas 1 qualifier. The loser will play the Sudamérica Rugby A Championship 2017 winner.

Uruguay sit 12 places above Brazil in the World Rugby Rankings in 21st, but such was the performance of Os Tupis in the second half in Montevideo that it was only in the 79th minute that Los Teros made certain of victory with Leandro Leivas' second try of the match.

Los Teros came out of the blocks in a hurry, scoring 10 points in the opening five minutes through Leivas' try and Felipe Berchesi's conversion and penalty, the first of 14 points the fly-half would score as he marked his return to the side with a 100 per cent record from the tee.

The home side continued that form to lead 27-10 at half-time thanks to tries from captain Juan Manuel Gaminara following a driving maul and his fellow flanker Franco Lamanna after a good run by nippy scrum-half Santiago Arata.

Brazil had to be content with a try under the posts from a crash-ball by the always-efficient Moisés Duque, who also kicked a penalty.

However, they emerged after half-time with a new attacking mindset and were rewarded when replacement Matheus Daniel was sent under the posts by a neat offload from winger Stefano Giantorno. 

New Zealand-born Josh Reeves reduced the deficit further with a long-range drop goal, only for Uruguay to reassert their advantage with a penalty try.

Brazil, though, fought back again when Joao Luiz da Ros scored the best try of the match in the 68th minute, showcasing the best of his team’s play after a series of phases enabled the flanker to go over in the left corner. Duque cut the gap to seven points with a superb kick to set up a tense final 10 minutes in which Uruguay were only able to breathe comfortably when Leivas went over in the last minute.

Chile too strong for Paraguay

In Santiago, Los Cóndores had no such problems in overcoming Paraguay with the game over by half-time with the home side leading 54-7 after crossing for eight tries.

Sevens captain Felipe Brangier (2), number eight Benjamín Soto, winger Franco Velarde, prop José Munita and winger José Ignacio Larenas all crossed for tries, five of them converted by fly-half Francisco González, before Paraguay got on the scoreboard with a converted try from their own fly-half Héctor Gayoso on the half-hour mark. 

Larenas completed his hat-trick before the break with two more tries, both of them converted converted by González.

The second half was a much slower affair with Chile only able to add two further tries to their tally, the first through flanker Ignacio Silva and the other a second try for Soto.

Paraguay will look to bounce back when they travel to Sao Paulo to face Brazil on Friday in the battle for third place.

Chile's win will improve their rating by just over two tenths when the World Rugby Rankings update at 12:00 UK time on Monday, but they will remain 29th, nine place ahead of Paraguay. Uruguay's victory over Brazil had no impact on the rating of either side.

Main photo: Luciano Rosano (LRPRO) / Prensa URU