ARN Story of the Year 2015

There were heaps of exciting stories to cover in the Americas during the 2015 calendar year, which prompted a trio of writers to come to together to create this site. While that in itself is notable, at least in our eyes, we could hardly give this award to ourselves!

In all seriousness, the rugby world was overshadowed by the 8th edition of the Rugby World Cup, as ever a momentous occasion, and yet even the presence of the flagship tournament on the rugby calendar and one of the biggest sporting events in the year was not enough to take the prize.

Argentina’s wonderful performance in England reiterated their emergence as a clear Top 5 contender for now and the coming years. Players like Agustín Creevy and Nicolás Sánchez are among the best in the world at their positions and younger players such as Pablo Matera or Tomás Lavanini are swiftly moving up the ranks.

The lesser lights had mixed fortunes. Canada and the USA both floundered for the most part, with Canada having an especially poor 2015. Uruguay did not get much in the way of results but showed notable improvement and one feels that trend will continue in 2016. For the North American sides, it will be a time of rebuilding and finding hidden talent accross the vast spaces where rugby is played. We also saw firsts for ‘minnows’ as Chile earned a famous victory over Uruguay, and Uruguay got one over an Argentina XV.

On the 7s front the Eagles defeated Canada at the NACRA tournament to earn their spot in the Olympics, a terrible blow for Canadian confidence and their place in the new frontier that will take place in August 2016 is now far from certain. Indeed the fast-approaching Rio Games garnered significant attention across the rugby-verse but in the Americas one feels that it won’t be until the event itself hits that it will approach its greatest appeal.

Undoubtedly one of the biggest stories of the year on the player front was the suspension and ultimate dropping of long-time Eagles captain Todd Clever from the World Cup squad. No single selection caused as much of a stir as Mike Tolkin’s unceremonious dismissal of his on-field lieutenant, but one gets the feeling we haven’t heard the last of that saga.

The revelation that the ‘Americas Six Nations’ would be kicking off in February 2016 was easily one of our biggest stories of the year, and the excitement continues to build for what promises to be a watershed event on the Americas calendar moving forwards. Of course in terms of pure numbers our work clarifying foreign-born players in the World Cup was untouched, and even copied nearly word-for-word by another unscrupulous publication. As they say, ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’

THE WINNER

At the end of the day there was no vote and no debate required, the numbers spoke for themselves. Far and away our most popular topic of the year was the announcement that professional rugby was at last on its way to the United States. The launch of PRO Rugby garnered massive interest from abroad and virtually every article posted on the topic exploded within hours of publication. League owner Doug Schoninger still has his work cut out for him to get the league off the ground in 2016 but the excitement is palpable. For engaging the imagination of American rugby fans and promising that the coming year will be the most important in Americas history, the 2016 Story of the Year award goes to PRO Rugby.