Pablo Lemoine

After retiring from rugby in early 2012, Lemoine took up coaching, where he began coaching the Montevideo Cricket Club U–19's side. Though this was a short stint, as he was later named head coach of the Uruguayan national side on a 4-year contract, with the aim of qualifying for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He first match in charge came against Argentina during the 2012 South American Rugby Championship "A", where Argentina won 40–5. Uruguay went on to beat Chile and Brazil to claim second place. In June 2012, Uruguay competed in the 2012 IRB Nations Cup, where Uruguay finished fourth behind hosts Romania, Argentina Jaguars and Italy A. The 2013 South American Rugby Championship "A" started Uruguay's qualification progress for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which kept alive haven finished second to advance to the NACRA-CONSUR playoff final, against the United States. The opening leg of the play-offs saw Uruguay draw 27–27 in Montevideo, but lost 32–13 in the return fixture in Kennesaw, Georgia, which sent Lemoine's men to the repechage qualification.

During the 2014 South American Rugby Championship "A", Uruguay claimed their first Championship in 33 years, haven beaten Paraguay 34–10, Brazil 34–9 and Chile 55–13. On 2 August 2014, Uruguay beat Hong Kong 28–3, to set up a home and away series against Russia to claim the final sport in Pool A. Haven lost 22–21 in Krasnoyarsk, Uruguay needed to beat Russia by 2 points or more to qualify, and on 11 October, Uruguay beat Russia 36–27 to qualify for the World Cup. However, the matches leading up to the World Cup, saw Uruguay claim just three wins from 13 games, though one of those wins was a first ever victory over Argentina, winning 30–26 - though it was an Argentina XV side that was fielded. They lost to back to back matches to Japan in August 2015, the first test being a first ever loss to the Japanese, 30–8. Uruguay failed to claim a win during the 2015 Rugby World Cup, losing all their matches in their group; 54–9 to Wales, 65–3 to Australia, 47–15 to Fiji and 60–3 to England. Though, Uruguay did pick up their first World Cup try in 12 years, when Carlos Arboleya scored a try against Fiji on 6 October 2015.

On 1 December 2015, it was announced that Lemoine had stepped down as Uruguayan head coach, and became the new Director of High Performance for the URU, whilst leading the High Performance Center at Estadio Charrúa.^[7][8] Lemoine left his role with the URU in early 2018 following his appointment as the German national team head coach.

On 8 January 2018, Pablo Lemoine was announced as the new head coach of Germany after Kobus Potgieter stood down at the end of 2017.^[9] Vuyo Zangqa went back to coaching the German VIIs team, after he acted as caretaker coach in Germany's defeat to Chile on 25 November 2017. Lemoine's high profile recruitment by the German Rugby Federation was part of the apex of a larger controversy, the "Rugbystreit" (The "Rugbystreit" in German Rugby.)

Lemoine led Germany into the 2018 Rugby Europe Championship, needing at least three victories to put them within a chance of World Cup qualification. However, with 5 defeats, including the four defeats that goes towards qualification, Germany found themselves at the bottom of the 2018 Rugby Europe Championship table and bottom of the aggregate 2017/2018 Championship table that acted as World Cup qualification. However, following an investigation into the European teams using ineligible players, Belgium, Romania and Spain were deducted points which saw Germany by default finish second and advance to the final round of the European qualification stage. In that round, Germany narrowly defeated Portugal 16–13, to advance to the Europe/Oceania play-off series against Samoa. In the first leg, Samoa convincingly beat Germany 66–15 in Apia. The return leg, saw Samoa complete a series win with a 42–28 win in Heidelberg, despite the fact that Germany led 28–21 leading into the final 10 minutes, but conceded three tries in the closing minutes of the game.

In August 2018, it was announced that the German Rugby Federation were searching for a new coach ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup Repechage, after it emerged Lemoine had returned to South America.^[10]

On 31 August 2018, Lemoine was announced as the head coach of Chile.^[11] His first set of match game not to long after, when Chile played a South American XV losing 38–21 and then an historic first match against the Māori All Blacks losing 73–0.

His first win in charge of Chile came midway through 2019 - after nine losses - beating Paraguay 53–10 during the 2019 South American Six Nations, which ended up being the only win in 2019.

With limited games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pablo Lemoine's Chile returned to the international arena in 2021 as part of the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers. After finishing second in the opening stage behind Uruguay in July 2021, Chile later defeated Canada and then the United States to earn an historic qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup as Americas 2.^[12]

As part of the development for Chile ahead of the World Cup, an historic European tour in November 2023 was secured, with matches against Romania and Tonga; which saw Chile lose both tests.^[13][14]

The World Cup saw Chile lose all their games, losing to Japan (42–12), Samoa (43–10), England (71–0) and Argentina (59–5).

In 2024, Chile continued to receive support from World Rugby to aid in development ahead of an expanded 2027 Rugby World Cup, with a historic three-test incoming tour in July, with victories over Hong Kong and Belgium and a loss to Scotland in an historic first encounter.

Chile later went onto earn an historic first win over Argentina XV,^[15] and win all of their matches in the opening stage of the 2027 Rugby World Cup qualification process.

Uruguay

• South American Rugby Championship
  • Winners: 2014
  • Runners-up: 2012, 2013, 2015
• CONSUR Cup
  • Runners-up: 2014, 2015
• World Rugby Nations Cup
  • Third: 2014

• Pablo Lemoine at ESPNscrum (archived)
• Pablo Lemoine at ItsRugby.co.uk

Sporting positions
Preceded by Sebastián Piñeyrúa	Uruguay National Rugby Union Coach 2012–2015	Succeeded by Esteban Meneses
Preceded by Vuyo Zangqa (Caretaker)	Germany National Rugby Union Coach 2018	Succeeded by Mike Ford
Preceded by Mark Cross	Chile National Rugby Union Coach 2018–	Succeeded by Incumbent