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

Americas Pacific Challenge
The first running of the competition was rather hastily put together and one cannot ignore the poorly executed streaming strategy that saw Canadian fans in particular able to watch barely 50% of their team’s involvement. World Rugby continues to fail Tier 2 nations on that front. On the rugby side of things, however, tournament came off without a hitch and provided an opportunity for development players of each country to press their claims for senior international selection. While a couple of the games were one-sided, for the most part the rugby was of a decent standard and certainly of a quality sufficient to judge the merits of those new to representative rugby. The final match between Fiji and Argentina lived up to its billing. Hopefully the competition, or one of equal value, continues next year. The announcement that Fiji will be entered in the Australian National Rugby Championship next season likely rules out their involvement, but that opens the door for Tonga or Japan or perhaps another South American team like Chile or Brazil.

Argentine Depth
The Argentina XV came through the Americas Pacific Challenge undefeated to win their second major tournament of the year following on their earlier success in the Americas Rugby Championship. A single loss to Romania’s senior side at the Nations Cup is the only blemish on their record this year. The same group of players also lifted the Sudamérica Rugby Cup under the guise of Argentina, though it remains unclear whether Argentina have actually awarded caps for those matches. In any event, Los Pumas now boast impressive strength in depth with quality contenders at virtually every position even ignoring a significant number of players based in Europe. There is no question the talent is there for a second fully professional side. The question is now which competition will welcome them?

Americas Influence in Europe
Players from across the Americas continue to make their mark overseas. Argentine loose forward Tomas Leonardi signed with Leicester during the week and former All-American captain Will Magie joined Ealing Trailfinders. Nick Civetta made his competitive debut for Newcastle Falcons and Matt Tierney started for Pau against Bath. Juan Figallo, Marcelo Bosch, and Chris Wyles all started for Saracens in the big win over Toulon, who featured Samu Manoa and Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe. DTH van der Merwe scored two tries for Scarlets and French clubs are queueing up to recruit a number of Argentine stars. Americas players are in demand more than ever.

Americas Officials Moving Up
Federico Anselmi will be a busy man in November. The leading referee from Argentina will go from Cardiff to Tbilisi, then Malaga, and finally Paris as he takes charge of two internationals and assistants in two others. Meanwhile a record five Americas officials have been named on the panel for the 2016/17 HSBC Sevens Series. Pali de Luca and Damián Schneider of Argentina are joined by Canada’s Chris Assmus and USA’s Mike O’Brien on the men’s circuit, with Olympic participant Rose LaBrèche returning for the women. Well deserved recognition for all of those hard working individuals and one hopes that the Americas will one day have a representative at the top of the World Rugby food chain.

Jaguares 2017 Schedule
The news that Los Jaguares will travel 65% less in their second season is very welcome indeed. The exhausting 2016 program saw them deteriorate visibly by the end of the competition, and with Argentina’s domestic-only selection policy that fatigue has spilled over into Los Pumas. An improved schedule for 2017 should have a dramatic effect on their standing and will also have a knock-on effect with Argentina’s international performance. It looks like 2017 could be a very good year for Argentine rugby.

Uruguay
We don’t want to get too carried away with the result given the obvious disparity in class in the forwards, but at the same time Uruguay must be commended for their excellent performance against the USA. Most pleasing was that they achieved success without resorting to 10-man rugby. They used the scrum as a platform, but their attack very much resembled the Argentinean style of open and expansive rugby, not a surprise given the origin of their coach Esteban Meneses. Particularly notable is that Uruguay’s performance followed up a terrible shellacking suffered at the hands of Argentina just four days before that. They now have a proper European tour against Germany, Spain, and Romania that will be a real test of their progress. On the basis of what we have seen over the past two weeks, qualification for the 2019 World Cup is absolutely an achievable target.

 

UNDER

Canadian Confidence
While the American scrum was crumbling, so was Canadian confidence. Zero wins and last place in the Americas Pacific Challenge, ending with a loss to Samoa despite enjoying a huge advantage in the scrum. The second half collapse to the USA Selects was truly woeful, and one wonders why Canadian teams time and again fall away dramatically in the last half-hour of games. It seems as much psychological as it is physical, it’s almost as if the players don’t actually believe they should be winning. Is it simply a matter of gaining more high level experience, a question of leadership, or a bit of both?

Canadian Injuries
It’s been a rough week for an already depleted Canadian side. Ospreys stars Tyler Ardron and Jeff Hassler were confirmed to be out of the November tour. Nanyak Dala and Dan Moor dropped out of the Pacific Challenge with undisclosed injuries, and Phil Mackenzie was concussed in training, meaning he will also miss the games against Ireland, Romania, and Samoa. Hubert Buydens was already out with a knee injury, while Jamie Cudmore and Jebb Sinclair are still on the shelf and time is against them. Add in long-term casualties Jason Marshall and Kyle Gilmour and that is a significant number of experienced players that will be watching rather than playing in November.

USA Scrum
Many American fans must be wondering what on earth happened that their team lost by 32 points to Uruguay on Sunday. It was a stark reminder of the importance of holding ground at the set piece. Let’s keep this in perspective, however. Uruguay fielded effectively their first choice tight five against a pack full of rookies. That said, there is a systematic problem in USA rugby at the moment when it comes to the set piece, and the scrum in particular. It’s not a problem of size or strength, it’s very clearly a technique issue. USA Rugby must find a way to make scrummaging a priority at training again or results like the one on Sunday will become more frequent.