In an attempt to continue strengthening the High Performance structure, an area that constantly seeks to work on the development of players to nurture the senior team, Esteban Meneses was appointed as the new Technical Secretary of the National Teams. His predecessor in the position was José ‘Cochi’ Pellicena, who was the first person to hold the position back in November 2022.
Regarding the position that “El Mono” Meneses will occupy, Francisco Rubio, Manager of Rugby and High Performance at the UAR, described the following: “For us Esteban Meneses is a great addition since he is a person with great experience. We truly believe that he is the most capable person for this position. His human condition plus his technical capacity make him very valuable, and when choosing we had no doubt that he would be the right person to carry out this work.”
Regarding Meneses’ experience and his specific role, he added: “He participated as head coach of the last two World Cups in Uruguay, he spent his last eight years entering Uruguay and recently worked with World Rugby. In addition, he collaborated in the development of the Portugal team, so for us he is a great addition. His specific function is to coordinate with the Los Pumas staff and the UAR development teams, maintaining a direct relationship and working both on the field and in coaching the development of the entire coaching staff and teams. Basically, he is the link between the Los Pumas staff and all the UAR development teams.”
Esteban Meneses received his entry to the UAR with great enthusiasm: “I am very happy and happy to assume this new role, it is the place I always wanted to be. I thank everyone who brought me here, also to Uruguay that gave me the opportunity to develop as a professional and obviously to my family who always supports me. I’m very excited, it’s something new and different. Everything that is coming represents an enormous challenge.”
Regarding the challenges of the position, he commented: “The challenges are trying to align what the game is for all the teams, going down from Los Pumas to Argentina XV and Los Pumitas. And immediately, Los Pumitas with the Youth World Cup. The idea is to be able to support the staff and give a hand in everything technical, which was my experience in Uruguay and immediately take it to the World Cup. “Having the possibility of starting an activity like the World Cup is a tremendous challenge.”
A brief comment about how he sees Argentine rugby and what he will seek to achieve: “I see Argentine rugby very well. Sevens competing as it is competing, with a lot of consistency. That consistency is what we have to achieve in all teams and the most important thing to work on.”
Brief review of the career of Esteban Meneses
Esteban Meneses (52 years old), is a former player and was captain of La Plata Rugby Club. There, he was champion of the last UAR tournament in 1995 (before the creation of the URBA). From 2009 to 2011 he was head coach of the first team of La Plata, obtaining third place in the URBA championship in 2009 and second place in 2010. In 2015 he was technical assistant of the first team of the Club Universitario de Buenos Aires (CUBA) and achieved second place in the URBA championship. In turn, he was coach of the Buenos Aires M17 team (2012 and 2013) and of the senior team in 2015, obtaining the Argentine championship.
At the end of 2015, he took over as head coach of the Uruguay national team. With Los Teros, he was present in two World Cups (Japan 2019 and France 2023) and is the coach with the most victories for Uruguay in the history of the World Cups. In addition, he won the 2016 and 2017 South American and 2017, 2018 and 2019 Nations Cup titles.
This year he was working together with Daniel Hourcade and Rodolfo Ambrosio as technical advisor for Sudamérica Rugby. In turn, together with Hourcade and Ambrosio, they worked as consultants for World Rugby assisting Portugal in the Rugby Europe Championship 2024.
