Brazil Rises to 7th in the Americas

Brazil’s impressive home victory over Colombia on Saturday sees the Tupis rising in the World and Americas Rankings. The Portuguese speaking country’s 44-0 win over Colombia sees Brazil rising from 9th to 7th in the Americas, to trade places with Colombia, and from 45th to 42nd in the world.

It eases the criticism directed at Brazil having a place in the new Americas Rugby Championship, albeit it has not entirely silenced critics. The Tupis remain outside the top six with Paraguay ranked above them in 6th place in the Americas and 37th in the world. Brazil have also moved back above Trinidad & Tobago with the Caribbean nation remaining in 8th.

Brazil’s two match series loss against Germany proved to be fundamental to the Tupis finishing the year below Paraguay. Indeed, prior to facing Germany Brazil was already ranked below Paraguay. Los Yakares, though, are likely to play more international rugby in the coming years with a 2016-2020 Strategic Plan to greatly aid Paraguayan progression.

It is hoped that a second division of the Americas Rugby Championship can be established with Agustín Pichot having previously admitted the possibility is indeed being investigated in detail. According to the Americas Rankings the six involved in the initial year would be the 7th-12 ranked countries: Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Colombia, Guyana, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.

Increased international competition will likely see changes before then. The addition of countries currently outside of World Rankings will greatly increase the pool of Americas rugby nations and could consequently see alterations in the teams ranked 7th-12th.

Also playing rugby this past week were Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. However with none of them being listed in the World Rankings they also remain outside of the subsequent Americas Rankings chart. Like them fellow Central American republics Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua are others who could become future members with the same being true of Ecuador.

There are four NACRA member unions currently excluded from the World and Americas Rankings. They are British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, St. Lucia and Turks and Caicos Islands. Additional non-NACRA and non-Sudamérica Rugby nations exist who could also attain membership status over time.