Martin Sigren interview: Taking Chile to a first Rugby World Cup and developing his game at Doncaster Knights

For nowhere at next year’s global gathering will there be a more uplifting tale than that of the Chilean rugby team, debuting at their first World Cup just two years after turning professional and having beaten the United States – union’s next financial frontier – to get there.

Singing his national anthem as proudly as any of his brothers in arms will be – health permitting – their captain Martin (pronounced Marteen) Sigren.

"For us the national anthem is huge, it’s emotional,” says Sigren, when asked if the tears will flow as they did for his football counterpart Ivan Zamarano, the great Inter Milan striker, when he captained his team in a World Cup second-round game against Brazil at the football World Cup 24 years ago, again in France.

"It’s a military anthem so it’s one you have to scream. In my case I try to sing it but also keep a balance because you don’t want to get too emotional.

"If you get too emotional that’s energy you’re wasting and I want all my energies focused on the field.”

It will be difficult keeping those emotions in check given the enormity of the occasion for Chilean rugby and the journey Sigren has been on to get to that point, one that just last month involved joining Doncaster Knights of the RFU Championship, becoming in the process the first of his country to play professionally in English rugby’s second tier.

The English are actually responsible for Sigren taking up the sport at a British speaking school back in Chile, when he and his four brothers followed their father into the game.

“Back when I started playing it was just a game played among British schools, it was more of an elite sport,” Sigren tells The Yorkshire Post, his education ensuring his English accent is strong.

"Only private schools had rugby, and still now that’s something they’re working on to get rugby into more public schools.”

The revolution Sigren has been part of is changing that.

Three years ago a high performance centre was developed to harness the best talent in the country.

They were part-timers, only training in the morning before work or their studies, but a bond was growing.

Last year a Chilean franchise was born in the new South American league which has a single franchise in six different countries.

"A professional league is huge, it was a big step for us,” says Sigren.

Then last October Chile knocked Canada out of a World Cup qualifier over two legs, ensuring a nation that had been present at every World Cup since the tournament began in 1987, would not be going to France.

A bigger scalp was to come.

Now effectively professional, in July of this year in Colorado, having lost the home leg 22-21 in the capital Santiago, Chile came from three further tries down to beat the much-fancied United States by a point and reach a maiden World Cup.

USA can still qualify via a do-or-die round-robin tournament in Dubai next month, but Chile had laid down a historic marker.

"It’s crazy. People look at that last moment, us beating the USA, but the way I see it is a much longer path over three years since our new coach came in and we started building the high performance structure,” says Sigren, Chile’s influential back row forward.

"It was three years of sacrifice, of leaving everything aside for this, for that shared purpose. Looking to achieve everything with nothing in return.

"We’ve only been getting paid for the last year, before that we were training 6.30 until 8.30 every morning, after which some went to study, others went to their jobs and our normal life. I’ve got my own little business so I was juggling the two. It was three years of really hard work.

"Looking back on that USA game; if you match up individuals they would beat us nine times out of 10, so what we had to work on was the bond, the collective purpose, what are we doing this for and I think that’s where we were better than them. We wanted it more than them.”

Their reward is a place at world rugby’s top table – four pool games against England, Argentina, Samoa and first up Japan, in Toulouse, next September/October.

“We have a really tough group but we just want to get in there and bring the fight and show the essence of battle that all Chilean teams have,” says Sigren of a team known as Los Condores.

"It will be a big moment for me as captain. I’m lucky to have a really good squad.

"With being together for so long we’re practically a family, we take care of each other, we’ve put so much on the field that there’s a huge bond between us. It will be a beautiful moment.

"A first World Cup for Chile is a huge opportunity in terms of rugby but also commercially it’s an opportunity to consolidate the structure we are building.

"We want to prove this is no one-off, that Chilean rugby can use the 2023 Rugby World Cup as a springboard to qualify for Australia in 2027, and then the United States in 2031.”

As ever with passionate Latin American followings, expect a carnival atmosphere for Chile’s games in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille where they face England on Saturday September 23, and Nantes for the South American derby with Argentina.

"We’re expecting a big Chilean following in France because it’s such a historic event, they want to be there, to live it,” smiles Sigren.

"Our achievement has really drove everyone crazy back home.

"This is what we fought for when we were preparing for the US. We were playing for the cultural change this could have on Chilean rugby.”

Doncaster Knights fans are starting to see some of what drives their new Chilean player in his early performances for the club.

Sigren was first contacted by Doncaster last season, but their need for a flanker became more urgent at the start of this season.

"I got the call on a Sunday, I had a meeting with Steve Boden (head coach) on the Monday, they sent me a proposal I had to sign on Wednesday,” recalls Sigren, who will head to Bucharest with his countrymen in November for autumn internationals against Romania and Tonga, but otherwise is Doncaster’s player for the season.

“Then on the Sunday I got the message I was flying out here on the Tuesday.

"When I was searching with my agent we were both looking for something that was a step forward in terms of the level I was playing at. So I’m here to play at a higher level, to keep on growing as a player but importantly keep on growing as a person.

"I’m out of my comfort zone, living by myself, a different culture, a different language and a huge challenge for me.”

Given what awaits in a year’s time, Sigren would have been forgiven for coming to England solely to get used to northern hemisphere rugby.

But if that had have been the case, Boden wouldn’t have signed him.

"There is an element of preparing for the World Cup, and there has to be, but Martin fully understands that you only flourish if your team flourishes," says Boden, whose team face Bedford Blues at Castle Park on Saturday.

"And that was the shining thing that came out of the conversation – he was an obvious fit for Doncaster. I had a Zoom meeting with him – it’s a bit like a first date you have an idea it’s going to go well or not – and he came across really well.

"I could tell he was really invested in the team and how he could make the team better, not his own personal goals as much.

"He’s physical, he works hard, he’s got a lot of energy. His game needs to improve but he’s got the right attitude that he’s going to work on it. And that’s what attracts us to players.”

For Sigren, his move to South Yorkshire is a significant step for not only himself, but rugby union in his country.

"In England I want to represent my country in the best way possible,” he says.

"I feel a bit of responsibility because I’m the first Chilean to be playing in this league so I want to represent my fellow players well so that in the future more Chilean players can come here.”

Anyone who wants the game to grow will wish Martin Sigren well.