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

Al Charron
Rugby Canada has officially broken ground on a new $8 million dollar training facility in Langford, and has revealed that the site will be named after one of Canada’s greatest players – Al Charron. Canada’s all-time record caps winner with 76, Charron participated in four World Cups and is tied with Gareth Rees for the most matches as captain with 25. Along with multiple appearances for the Barbarians, he was selected to the play for the World XV against Argentina in 1999 and played professionally in both England and France.

Uruguay June 2017
Uruguay will indeed host the 2017 World Rugby Nations Cup.The tournament will be played outside of Europe for the first time with Montevideo hosting all matches. playing in the tournament will be the ‘A’ sides of two Tier 1 teams, namely the Argentina XV and Emerging Italy. They will join Namibia, Russia, Spain and Uruguay. Los Teros will not play against Namibia. They will, however, face both Russia and Spain.

Colombia
An eventful week for Colombian rugby saw advancements both for the union and for the country’s leading player. The Federación Colombiana de Rugby (FCR) is to receive a World Rugby grant for the year 2017. The global governing body will invest £60,000 in the union for the period of January 01 – December 31 2017. This is an increase from the current investment of £40,000. O  Sunday 20-year-old Andrés Zafra made history by becoming the first Colombian player to play in Europe. He featured as a replacement for Lyon who played away to the Newcastle Falcons.

Pablo Huete
Chilean sporting journalists have elected Huete as Chile’s best rugby player of 2016. The Bayonne second-rower’s name has appeared on the final list for best Chilean sportsmen of the year. Final awards will be given on Tuesday December 20. Huete helped Bayonne win promotion from from the Pro D2 last season. Having been a regular in the 2015-16 season he is again holding down a regular spot, but this time in the Top 14. Huete follows in the footsteps of Sergio Valdés who previously helped Agen into the Top 14. Los Cóndores prop Ramón Ayarza also plays for Bayonne.

Americas Rugby Championship to Patagonia
The southern Argentine city of Comodoro Rivadavia will host the Argentina XV vs USA. The fixture will be part of the Americas Rugby Championship. It will be a final round match and will be played the weekend after Ushiaia becomes the southern most city in the world to host international rugby. The Argentina XV will play in Bahía Blanca, Ushuaia and Comodoro Rivadavia. Los Pumas have already been confirmed as appearing in San Juan and Santa Fé.

Americas Flyhalves in Europe
There were strong performances in Europe this weekend from Americas flyhalves. Canadian Connor Braid scored all of Worcester’s points in their away defeat to the Newport Gwent Dragons. The Challenge Cup match was highly influenced by Worcester losing Sam Betty to a red card. In France Benjamín Urdapilleta scored 16 points on Sunday as Castres defeated Montpellier in the Champions Cup, and Sebastián Poet went one better with a 21 point performance for Charente as they topped Colomiers by 26-25.

Joe Taufete’e
‘Big Joe’ joined the Worcester Warriors this past week. In doing so he is the second player from the Americas to arrive at the Aviva Premiership club in quick time. The former San Diego Breakers front rower joins Nick Civetta, Titi Lamositele, AJ MacGinty, Thretton Palamo, and Chris Wyles to give the USA six players in the Aviva Premiership. David Tameilau may be the next Eagle playing at the elite level. The no8 has reportedly been targeted by Top 14 clubs. Tameilau was San Francisco’s top try scorer in the 2016 PRO Rugby competition.

Argentina’s 2017
An extremely positive international calendar was released by the UAR on December 13. Details Los Pumas, the Argentina XV, Los Pumas Sevens, Los Pumitas and domestic activities the 2017 plans include a range of international action. The senior side, Los Pumas, will be busy with twelve test matches in 2017. These are to see three home matches in June, three away in November and six matches in the Rugby Championship. A return date to Twickenham is already official with England hosting the South Americans on Saturday November 11.

Texas
The US Eagles will be playing their two home matches of the 2017 Americas Rugby Championship in the great state of Texas. USA Rugby has now officially confirmed that the February 4 match against Uruguay will indeed take place at Toyota Field in San Antonio. The second home fixture is a week later on February 11 which sees Brazil welcomed at Round Rock’s Dell Diamond. Both Uruguay and famously Brazil defeated the Eagles in their own countries during the 2016 ARC, and now the USA have a golden opportunity to exact their revenge on home soil.

 

UNDER

PRO Rugby
PRO Rugby has axed one of its established teams – the San Francisco Rush. Rumors had been circulating for several months that all was not well in San Francisco with league owner Doug Schoninger publicly admitting that the team was looking for a new venue. Despite this, assurances were made that the team would continue but Schoninger has now taken the extraordinary step of cutting the team entirely. Things have not gone well for PRO in recent days with a proposed move to import a South African team to the competition seemingly blocked by USA Rugby and rumors of unrest among other franchises. With only a couple months before pre-season is meant to begin, the American rugby community awaits some positive news on a competition seemingly teetering on the edge of survival and disaster.

Martín Castrogiovanni
One of Argentina’s most noteworthy exports has called it a day. Castrogiovanni has hung up his boots at the age of 35. The impressive career saw the Paraná Tight Head prop winning the Aviva Premiership, Top 14 and Champions Cup competitions. For Italy Castrogiovanni played from 2002-2016. He amassed an impressive 119 caps, second only to another Argentine player, long-time Azzurri teammate Sergio Parisse.

Patricio Albacete
Albacete has been informed that his contract with Toulouse will not be renewed. The former Pumas vice-captain is one of a number of aged Toulouse players that is at the club for a final season. Albacete is yet to play this season. Having having suffered a cruciate ligament injury to his knee last season he is expected to be back to fitness shortly. Aged 35, Albacete joined Toulouse from Pau in 2006. He has played for the club ever since, winning both  the Top 14 in 2008, 2011 and 2012 in addition to the European Champions Cup in 2010. A return to play for Los Jaguares is extremely unlikely due to the volatile relationship he has with Daniel Hourcade.

Bruno Doglioli
Doglioli received a three-year ban for foul play. The Argentine player deliberately tackled referee Maria Beatrice Benvenuti during a game between Venezia Rangers and Valsugana in the Italian Serie A last weekend. Doglioli has been in Italy since joining Petrarca Padova in 2005 and his actions are even more disturbing given that he was club captain at Rangers. Video replays appear to conclude that the tackle was completely unprovoked with Doglioli flying into the back of Benvenuti with a dangerous shoulder charge.

Andrew Durutalo
Durutalo will not be playing Super Rugby in 2017. The US Eagles loose forward was left out of the 36-man squad named by new head coach Filo Tiatia on Monday morning. While names are still reportedly to be added, Durutalo will not be one of them with seven back row forwards already named and two of them designated as foreigners. Having already been included in the Eagles 7s teams for Dubai and Cape Town, it now looks likely that Durutalo will instead join the residential group at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for the remainder of the HSBC Sevens Series.

Daniel Hourcade
The fallout of Argentina’s disastrous November true continues. Head coach Hourcade has revealed further details into his teams woes. The disappointing performances against Wales and Scotland saw narrow losses. Hourcade has identified Los Pumas’ capitulation as coming from Cardiff. “Our expectations let us down on this end-of-year tour. Losing against Wales was very tough, it destroyed us”. In failing to win one match in the UK, Argentina faces a Pool of Death at Rugby World Cup 2019.