Vasco Maria Nunes Barata de Sousa Uva (born 15 December 1982 in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

) is a former

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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 its m ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

. He played as a number eight. He took his law degree at the

Catholic University of Portugal The Catholic University of Portugal (Portuguese: ''Universidade Católica Portuguesa'', pronounced nivɨɾsiˈðad(ɨ) kɐˈtɔlikɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ, also referred to as Católica or UCP for short, is a concordat university (non-state-run univers ...

, in Lisbon, and he works as a lawyer.

Club career

In Portugal he played for

Grupo Desportivo Direito Grupo Desportivo Direito is a Portuguese 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 ...

. He played briefly for

Montpellier Hérault RC Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...

in the top division of French rugby, the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

with his brother

Gonçalo Uva Gonçalo Uva (born 3 October 1984 in Lisbon) is a former Portuguese rugby union player. He plays as a lock. He played for Montpellier Hérault RC and RC Narbonne, in French rugby, the Top 14. He played for Grupo Desportivo Direito, in Portugal, ...

, which he joined in January 2008. He soon moved back to Direito, where he was the captain, until finishing his career at 2017/18. He also played for

Lusitanos XV Lusitanos XV are a Portuguese professional rugby union representative team based in Lisbon which was created in September 2013 to compete in the 2013–14 European Challenge Cup. It was announced by the Rugby governing body ERC on 2 September t ...

at international level.

International career

He was the captain of the Portugal national team in three of the four games at the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

finals. He was voted as Man of the Match in the 56-10 loss to Scotland. He commanded his team extremely well against New Zealand's All Blacks, but he fractured his hand against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and missed the last game of the RWC with Romania. He was replaced as the capitan of the "Lobos" by João Correia before the match played with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, at 1 March 2008, which resulted in a 26-41 loss. After the RWC he co-wrote ''Hoje é por Portugal'' (2007) (''Today is For Portugal''), a title taken from his quote before the first game against Scotland, a book that relates everything that this amateur team, and himself as the captain, lived before the qualifications and during this major sportive and professional event of their lives. He had 101 caps for the Portugal National Team, from 2003 to 2016, with 13 tries scored, 65 points in aggregate. He is one of the most capped players for Portugal, and is also the first men's player from outside the Rugby Championship or Six Nations countries to reach the 100-cap mark.

References

External links

Vasco Uva Statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uva, Vasco 1982 births Living people Portuguese rugby union players Portugal international rugby union players Rugby union number eights Grupo Desportivo Direito players Montpellier Hérault Rugby players Catholic University of Portugal alumni Rugby union players from Lisbon