"We're not the biggest, we're not the tallest. We came here to win (after) preparing this for four years.
"We are working since we qualified. We never had anything granted we always had to qualify first them come to a World Cup.
"You saw the passion. I'm really proud."
There were eight survivors from the team beaten 47 - 15 by Fiji in the 2015 tournament.
The Uruguay Observer said Los Teros' "exciting defense drowned Fiji" by preventing the ball going wide.
It described rugby as a "very logical sport", and logic dictated that the much larger and more powerful Fijians should prevail.
"Physical differences, differences in the level of professional competence, are very difficult to hide," Ignacio Chans wrote.
"The cold logic, explained in the international bookmakers, said that Los Teros should lose by 30 points.
"But these Teros are a little crazy. For some time now, goal shave been set higher than what logic marked.
"That is why, before they left for Japan, they said they wanted to shock the world and get one or two victories. Los Teros are the brave ones who dared to dream. And they had the right to dream."
It said Argentine coach Esteban Meneses had added a belief they could attack, rather than just defend strongly.
At the 2015 tournament, Uruguay had just four professional players so were rated as the only amateur team.
They now have 22 professionals – 11 are in the new American league - a rise credited to a high performance centre part-funded by World Rugby.
In the past three years, they beat the USA at home for the first time, while also beating Canada four times in a row and winning against Romania and Namibia.
Uruguay qualified directly for this tournament, beating Canada in a battle between South and North America early last year. But their only other World Cup victories were a long time ago, against Spain in 1999 and Georgia in 2003.
Even the players from South American rivals Argentina celebrated with centre Jeronimo de la Fuente saying: ""We are very happy.
"We have Rico Fretas in the Uruguay team, who spent a year with us in Jaguares. We love him very much, we know many players from Uruguay because we make many friendly with them.
"So in the team we take it very well , happy that Uruguay grows, that good players appear, with a good team. It might be a surprise but for the work they have done it is the result of a nice project they have. "
Pumas wing Tomas Lezana said he was particularly happy for his friend Freitas.
"Undoubtedly, this victory in Uruguay means a lot to South American rugby," Lezana said.
"We are happy for them, because it is a neighbouring country with which we have a good relationship. I am happy too for him (Freitas) and congratulations to Uruguay.
"The truth that I had lost sight of how Uruguay came from. Fiji has a great team with tremendous players, but Los Teros made a great game and we know they are evolving a lot."
The Guardian summed Fiji up, describing them as "abysmal – tired, sloppy and complacent".
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