Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires

The Buenos Aires Rugby Union (Spanish: Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires), usually referred as URBA, is the Argentine governing body that organises and controls the rugby union in the Buenos Aires Province (including the main district, Buenos Aires autonomous city and one team from Rosario, Santa Fé). The remaining clubs from the province are distributed amongst four other unions: Unión de Rugby del Oeste de Buenos Aires in the west, Unión de Rugby del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in the centre, Unión de Rugby de Mar del Plata in the east, and Unión de Rugby del Sur in the south.

Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires
SportRugby union
JurisdictionBuenos Aires Province
AbbreviationURBA
Founded1995 (1995)
AffiliationUAR
Affiliation date1995
HeadquartersBuenos Aires
PresidentSantiago Marotta
Vice president(s)Gustavo Cohen
SecretaryPatricio Campbell
Official website
www.urba.org.ar

URBA is the largest union of Argentina, with 76 clubs directly affiliated and 15 competing as guests.[1] Those teams compete in 7 competitions organised by the body, including the Top 12, the oldest competition in Argentina with the first championship being held in 1899.[2][3]

The Union also controls its representative team, which is the most winning side of defunct Campeonato Argentino with 37 titles.

History
Main article: Rugby union in Argentina

The "River Plate Rugby Union" (RPRU) was established in 1899 in Buenos Aires by four clubs, Buenos Aires F.C., Belgrano A.C., Lomas A.C. and Rosario A.C..[4] The body organized the first edition of the Buenos Aires' inter-club competition that same year, with Lomas being the first Argentine champion.[5] In 1951, the change of name to Spanish "Unión Argentina de Rugby", was after a request by the Argentine Olympic committee and it continued at the same time to work as local federation of Buenos Aires clubs, and national federation, recognized by International Rugby Board.

As a result of a restructuring of the Argentine rugby in 1995, the "Unión de Rugby de Buenos Aires" was created with the purpose of organising competitions in the city district and nearest towns like San Isidro and La Plata, while the remaining part of the Buenos Aires Province (including populous cities like Mar del Plata or Tandil) remained under other provincial unions. Therefore, the RPRU championship was renamed "Torneo de la URBA" and continued with the same format, while the Argentine Union (UAR) took over national teams only.

Competitions

As of 2019, several competitions are organized by the URBA. The first division is the Top 12, contested by 12 clubs of the Buenos Aires area and also the oldest rugby competition in Argentina, with its first edition held in 1899.

The URBA league system completes with Primera A (unlike its name indicates, it is the second division), Primera B (third), Primera C (fourth), Segunda (fifth), Tercera (sixth) and Desarrollo (seven, the lowest level).

Primera A to Segunda have 14 teams competing in each division, while there are 12 teams in Tercera and 11 in Desarrollo.[6]

Other competitions organized by the URBA are "Universitario" (with 22 University teams playing in two divisions), "Femenino" (16 female teams in two divisions), and "Empresarial" (27 teams in two divisions). The URBA has also competitions for U19, U17, U16 and U15 teams.

URBA league system
Level Competition # Clubs
1Top 1212
2Primera A14
3Primera B14
4Primera C14
5Segunda14
6Tercera12
7Desarrollo11

Union team
URBA kit

The Buenos Aires team –nicknamed Las Águilas (The Eagles)– is the most successful within the provincial teams in Argentina, having won a record 37 Campeonato Argentino titles.

Titles

Domestic

International
  • World Club Sevens (1): 2014

International friendly competition

The URBA team has also played several international friendly matches against national teams that were touring Argentina, with several wins against some of them. Below is the list of matches won:

Year Date Rival Result
199021 Jul England26–23
199330 Oct South Africa28–27
199615 Jun France29–26
199724 May England23–21
199816 Jun France36–22
199929 May Wales31–29

References
  1. Información de clubes on URBA website, 26 July 2019
  2. Fundación del River Plate Rugby Championship on Club Atlético del Rosario, 10 Apr 2019
  3. 120 Aniversario UAR, p.6, Olé, 10 Apr 2019
  4. ""Hechos históricos de la Unión" at UAR website". Archived from the original on 2013-02-19. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  5. "Leslie Corry Smith, el primer referee oficial de Argentina", by Rubén Ayala at Lomas AC website
  6. Desarrollo - Superior on URBA
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