Chile, Uruguay, USA Open 2018 Americas Rugby Championship at Home

Chile, Uruguay and the USA are to open the 2018 Americas Rugby Championship by playing at home. All three are to take to the field on February 03.

In what is to be a mouth-watering opening round the top two sides from 2016 and 2017 are to square-off in Los Angeles. Their match is to be the second part of a special double-header at the StubHub Center. In the two prior meetings the USA and the Argentina XV competed to what were, both, remarkable draws.

In both 2016 and 2017 Chile and Brazil faced in the opening round. This has been maintained for 2018. They are to play in the national capital of Santiago del Chile. In 2017 Brazil won in São Paulo while Chile won in the Americas Rugby Championship inaugural season in Santiago.

Uruguay’s match against Canada is to be the second of two between the countries. They meet for the all-important Americas 2 spot at Rugby World Cup 2019. Canada will host Uruguay first up in Vancouver on January 27 at BC Place. Los Teros then host the return fixture in a match which doubles for the Americas Rugby Championship. The winner, on aggregate, qualifies for Japan 2019. The loser enters repechage.

Uruguay are looking to continue their impressive run of results in 2017. Their star Top 14 player, Rodrigo Capó Ortega is in advanced talks to appear in the matches against Canada.

All six members of the Americas Rugby Championship will face each-other in the 2018 competition. An official announcement of the entire match schedule is yet to be made. The fixture, however, will see those who played away in 2017 hosting the opponent in 2018.

Changes for 2018 are to see the creation of a second division. Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago are reportedly to be the inaugural competitors.