Gastón Mieres (born 5 October 1989 in

Punta del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este later became internationally known as a resort for the Latin and North American j ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

) is a Uruguayan

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player who plays for Canadian club

Toronto Arrows Toronto Arrows R.F.C. is a rugby union club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that plays in Major League Rugby. The Arrows team is an independent off-shoot of the Ontario Blues provincial programme and is funded by a group of private investors ...

in Major League Rugby (MLR) and the

Uruguay national rugby union team The Uruguay national rugby union team ( Spanish: '' Selección de rugby de Uruguay'') represents Uruguay in men's international rugby union nicknamed ''Los Teros'', is governed by the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay. One of the older test sides in t ...

Los Teros as a fullback.

Career

Mieres began playing rugby at a young age for Lobos, the only rugby team in his birthplace of

. Due to his great speed and footwork, as well as a remarkable skill for tackling he was selected to play for the national youth teams throughout every category. In 2010, he received his first full cap for the first team of Los Teros and then went on to alternate between Los Teros XV's team and the 7's team, depending on each's calendar. Mieres began playing professionally in 2014 for Rugby Club Valpolicella of Verona, Italy of the second tier of the Italian Rugby Union championship, after outstanding performances in several test matches and the

2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying The qualification process for the 2015 Rugby World Cup began during the pool stages of the 2011 tournament in New Zealand, during which the top three teams from each of the four pools were awarded automatic qualification for the 2015 event. A f ...

s. He has played at the 2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying and at the

, where Los Teros achieved the feat of beating Russia in the playoffs for the last place at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Of the 31 players included in the Los Teros squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, only four were playing at a professional level (Mieres, Felipe Berchesi, Agustín Ormaechea and

Mario Sagario Mario Sagario (born 29 June 1986) is a Uruguayan rugby union player who plays as a prop for Carrasco Polo Club and the Uruguayan national rugby union team. Club career Sagario started his career in Uruguay playing for Carrasco Polo Club in 2006 ...

). It is for this reason that obtaining the last spot for the 2015 Rugby World Cup was such an exceptional accomplishment since it made Los Teros the only team composed of amateur players out of the 20 taking part in the tournament. Mieres ranked third in the Most Offloads Made ranking of the 2015 Rugby World Cup during the group stage for having made seven offloads, the same as world renowned offloader Sonny Bill Williams of the New Zealand All Blacks. In November 2015, Mieres was tested on a week trial on Coventry Rugby Club, till he finally signed a short contract with the team. The player returned to Lobos in early 2016. He signed with Canadian club

ahead of the 2019 Major League Rugby season.

References

External links

* 1989 births Living people Expatriate rugby union players in Canada Expatriate rugby union players in England Expatriate rugby union players in Italy People from Punta del Este Sportspeople from Maldonado Department Rugby union fullbacks Toronto Arrows players Uruguay international rugby union players Uruguayan expatriate rugby union players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Canada Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in England Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Uruguayan rugby union players Rugby union wings Peñarol Rugby players 2015 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players {{uruguay-rugbyunion-bio-stub