Up and Under

The Up and Under is a weekly feature on Americas Rugby News which reviews the best and worst from games involving the Americas teams over the previous week.

UP

England as Host Nation
There is no denying this was one of the greatest World Cups of all time. It was a far better tournament than 2011 and possibly only 2007 will go down as having been better. In 2007, 97% of match tickets for the games in France were sold, in 2015 the figure is 98%. 2015 did bring problems such as too short of a turn-around for too many Tier 2 nations, Wales getting eight matches, no play-offs in England cities other than London and Manchester’s only game being a dead rubber. The tournament, though, was a huge success. World Rugby can now invest heavily in the game worldwide.

Nicolás Sánchez
A solid captain by Argentine fly half Nico Sánchez saw the Tucumán pivot finishing up as the top point scorer of the tournament. His 97 points were more than all other players in the competition and this saw the contracted Argentine Super Rugby player joining Gonzalo Quesada in an elite group. Quesada was the leading scorer in Rugby World Cup 1999.

Colombia
Make no mistake Colombia is a country to keep a close eye on in the future. The most populated Spanish-Speaking country in South America is working hard to take rugby to the poorer neighborhoods and doing so with the backing of multinational corporation AIG. The women’s national team will play in Rio 2016 while the men are looking to win back-to-back South American B Championships with the 2016 edition coming up this month. The sport has boomed with Los Pumas being regularly pointed to as a predominant factor.

Uruguay XV
In an effort to further boost Uruguayan rugby and, specifically, provide Pablo Lemoine with a greater level of elite players to chose from, Uruguay has a team in the Argentine Provincial Championship. Facing Lagos del Sur in the opening round this weekend the Uruguay XV completed a comfortable win to give themselves reason to dream of earning promotion to the first division.

São José Rugby
A ninth national title for São José Rugby sees the São Paulo state team closing in on SPAC’s record of thirteen national titles. This year’s win sees São José now having nine overall and confirming their position as the most powerful team in Brazil during the post 2007 explosion era. Like Colombia the sport’s profile and participation numbers has boomed following the success of Los Pumas on the world stage.

New Zealand
Never before has a team had a team won two Rugby World Cups in-a-row. Such was the campaign of New Zealand that there is no longer any doubt that the current generation of players is the greatest of all time. New Zealand powered to a convincing half time lead and, after an Australian fightback, managed to take control to win cleanly.

UNDER

John Lacey
Having been widely condemned on social media for his handling of New Zealand vs Tonga and Wales vs Fiji the appointment of John Lacey to referee the Bronze Final was not a popular one. The Irishman’s officiating in the Third-Place play-off was, similarly, not well accepted with him being overly harsh on Argentina throughout. So much so that the first offence of the game saw Tomás Cubelli yellow carded for not being back ten when attempting a tackle from a South African quick-tap. In the Semi Final Will Genia was not yellow carded for committing the identical offence against Los Pumas. Lacey also gave South Africa a try from a Bryan Habana forward pass.

Stade Français
For the second week in-a-row Gonzalo Quesada’s team appear in the under section. The 2015 French Champions lost again, this time against the bottom-seeds Agen. The Parisians are consequently sitting in 12th position ahead only of Pau and Agen who won promotion from the Pro d2 last season. Big city teams are leading the way with Clermont, Racing 92, Montpellier, Bordeaux and Toulouse all well placed.

Cardiff Blues and Ospreys
Also back in the under is the Welsh capital city and surrounding region of the Cardiff Blues. An away loss against Zebre saw the Parma based Italian side completing the unlikely two wins in a row. The Ospreys and Newport Gwent Dragons have both also started poorly with the Ospreys joining the Cardif Blues in the bottom three. All is not lost for the Welsh regions as the Scarlets have been playing very well and continue to lead the Pro 12.

Newcastle and London Irish
Sticking with professional rugby in Europe the Newcastle Falcons and London Irish have started poorly with both teams winless and pointless after three rounds. With a number of other clubs getting notably more international players back it could be a long season for both and relegation more than just a remote possibility.