Luis Lucho Mariano Gradín is a former Argentine rugby union player and coach, and a current sports executive. He played as a scrum-half.
Gradín is one of the most mythical names of Argentine rugby history. He first played for San Isidro Club, before joining Belgrano Athletic, one of the four founding teams of the UAR. He had 14 caps for Argentina, from 1965 to 1973, scoring 5 tries, 1 conversion and 4 penalties, 32 points on aggregate. [1]
The San Isidro Club is an Argentine sports club based in the Boulogne Sur Mer district of Greater Buenos Aires. The club has gained recognition due to its rugby union team, being one of the most successful clubs of Argentina with 25 Torneo de la URBA championships won. SIC has also won 4 Nacional de Clubes tournaments.
The Argentina national rugby team is organised by the Argentine Rugby Union. Nicknamed the Pumas, they play in sky blue and white jerseys,
He was the head coach of Argentina for three times, from 1979 to 1980, with Aitor Otaño, from 1990 to 1991, with Guillermo Lamarca, and in 1992, with José Luis Imhoff. He and Lamarca were head coaches at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, where the "Pumas" were eliminated in the 1st round, after losing all the three games.
The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be staged in the northern hemisphere, with England the hosts of the championship game. Following on from the success of the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, the 1991 World Cup received increased attention and was seen as a major global sporting event for the first time. Also for the first time, qualifying competitions were introduced as the number of entrants had increased from 16 nations four years before to a total of 33 countries. The eight quarter-finalists from 1987 qualified automatically with the remaining eight spots contested through qualifiers by 25 countries. This however resulted in only one new side qualifying for the tournament, Western Samoa replacing Tonga. The same 16-team pool/knock-out format was used with just minor changes to the points system.
He was the President of the UAR from 1985 to 2000, and during his tenure it was accepted for the first time that professional players could represent the "Pumas" and he allowed that the shirts of the National Team had publicity. He was twice President of the URBA, being elected for the second time in 2012. [2]
