Up and Under

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

Canada
An impressive opening performance in the Americas Rugby Championship sees the Canadians topping the standings. The bonus point home victory over Uruguay awarded Canada with five competition points, one more than the next best this weekend, Chile. The five tries to three victory came from a Canadian lineup missing nearly all of their top professionals, while Uruguay was significantly closer to being at full strength. Canada also received a boost on the HSBC Sevens Circuit as they turned their fortunes around to win the Bowl in Sydney.

USA
Next up for Canada will be the USA who sit in third position together with Argentina after the teams competed to a spectacular 35-35 draw in Houston. Should the USA win at home, the Eagles will give themselves a realistic chance of winning the first edition of the revamped ARC. The Eagles are to play Chile in Florida in round three before facing Brazil and Uruguay in São Paulo and Montevideo respectively.

Chile
An exciting match in Santiago saw visitors Brazil very nearly upset hosts Chile, but Los Cóndores did just enough to open the ARC with a crucial home victory. With Uruguay failing to deliver in Langford, Chile will be eyeing up their round four home clash against Los Teros. Next up is an away match with Argentina in San Juan. In order to be competitive Chile will not be able to commit the same errors that gifted Brazil possession, field position, and points.

Los Jaguares
An eventful Friday saw the uniforms of Los Jaguares officially unveiled in Buenos Aires. The home and away strips were both warmly received and Facundo Isa, Martín Landajo, and captain Agustín Creevy all showed them proudly to the media. Also revealed was that Lucas González Amorosino has returned from Munster to sign a two year deal with the team.

Grassroots Project in Belize Schools
This past week saw rugby introduced to a school in the Central American country of Belize. It was the first time ever that the sport has been exposed to school children in the country. Organizers Tony Gillings and Drew Morrissey organized the initiative together with PC Wilfredo Petillo from the Police Community Unit in Belize City.

Ciaran Hearn
An outstanding try this weekend by Ciaran Hearn for London Irish saw the Aviva Premiership club get off the bottom of the table, thereby leaving the relegation zone. The solo effort involved the Canadian centre chipping the ball in the air, regathering it, and going over under the sticks. With his contract set to expire at the end of the season, surely Hearn’s good form will prompt a swift renewal. Jebb Sinclair also started for the Exiles in the big win over Worcester.

UNDER

Argentina XV
The original plans for Argentina’s involvement in the ARC was for Los Pumas to compete, thereby having five additional annual test matches. Due to the timing of the event coinciding with Los Jaguares’ preparation for their inaugural Super Rugby campaign, Argentina has instead opted to designate their team as an ‘A’ side. This means that it is a non-capped international and that World Rugby Rankings points are not on the line, as they are for the other five teams in the competition. For future editions of the tournament hopefully Argentina will find a better solution to the issue.

Chile vs Brazil Livestream
With the match in Santiago not televised fans took to the internet to watch the historic ARC opener. It was provided by FERUCHI on Livestream which enabled those interested to follow their team or simply watch the match. Or so they thought. Viewing was difficult in the opening half with complaints from an assortment of countries saying it was cutting out. Thankfully it improved dramatically in the second half, enabling viewers to see an intriguing contest that went right down to the wire.

USA Eagles 7s
Mike Friday was not a happy camper after his team suffered their most embarrassing defeat of the campaign on Saturday at the Sydney 7s. That Kenya won isn’t the issue, it was the 21-0 halftime lead squandered with Bush Mwale’s try on fulltime sending them to an early shower. Almost as shocking was the reappearance of their horrendous blue change strip. Few would complain if their baggage handler ‘lost’ the jerseys on the long trip home.

Eagles November Schedule
Of concern for the USA is the lack of a Tier One opposition in November of this year. Although the full fixture list is far from being confirmed what is known is who the Six Nations unions will be playing against. Canada is to get a match against Ireland but the Eagles opponents will likely be Tier 2 and possibly Tier 3 unions. @T2Rugby compiled the following list showing all dates have been filled by others. The fixture against Maori All Blacks in Chicago is a mere consolation.