The Super Liga Americana de Rugby officially launched in Montevideo on Friday evening and South America have their first professional league. Sudamérica Rugby President Sebastián Piñeyrúa was in attendance for the historic occasion hosted at the Estadio Charrúa.

Five teams will fully participate in the competition with one – Cafeteros Pro from Colombia – playing an exhibition series against the 5th-place team at season’s end. Games will run for 12 weeks between February and May, 24 games in all. Each team will play 8 games in the round-robin regular season, split evenly home and away. Semi Finals and a Final will determine the winner.

Cafeteros will be led by former Tucanes coach David Jaramillo. Interim Brazil coach Fernando Portugal heads Corinthians, Yakares No1 Raúl Pérez coaches Olimpia Lions, and Pablo Lemoine of the Condores will also take charge of Selknam. Ceibos will be run by Ignacio Fernández Lobbe from the Argentina XV, and another former Pumas forward – Pablo Bouza – will direct Peñarol from Uruguay.

Santiago Arata confirmed his place at Peñarol, where he is to be joined by Juan Manuel Cat and Tomás Inciarte. Others in attendance included Colombia’s Carlos Ángulo of Cafeteros, Brazil flanker Arthur Bergo from Corinthians, and Chile’s Ignacio Silva at Selknam. Argentina XV midfielder Tomás Cubilla will play for Ceibos, and Pumas winger Manuel Montero is one of a select group of Argentines who will boost the Olimpia Lions in Paraguay.

The event video in its entirety can be seen below (in Spanish).