Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The 2017 South American C Championship starts on Sunday. This year’s edition of the tournament sees Costa Rica hosting all matches. The remaining participants are to be Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.
The Four Nations competition will be played from Sunday August 27 to Saturday September 02 at Liceo Franco Costarricense in Concepción de Tres Ríos, 17km north of the national capital of San José.
All six of the competition’s matches will count towards the Americas Rankings. Updates will be made to the Americas following all three rounds of fixtures.
Costa Rica
The host nation last won the South American C Championship in 2012. Since then the champions have been Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. Costa Rica arguably has the best infrastructure of all four competitors but it is Guatemala who has been the most successful in recent tournaments. Los Ticos enter their matches against Nicaragua and Panama as favorites but are to be underdogs against Guatemala.
Prediction: Second Place
Guatemala
Back-to-back champions in 2015 and 2016, Guatemala enter this year’s competition as the favorites. Los Jaguares are expected to win all three matches. The schedule has been carefully set-up with so that matches against Panama and Nicaragua will fall in the opening two rounds. A likely final round decider will thereby be played on the closing day of the competition.
Prediction: Champions
Nicaragua
Newcomers Nicaragua enter as the team most likely to finish in bottom spot. Suggesting the team is certain to finish last would not be fair though. Indeed last December Nicaragua defeated Guatemala u23 68-7. With El Salvador not involved the best shot at a win will be against Panama. The match between them will be on the final day of the competition in a potential Bronze Final.
Prediction: Fourth Place
Panama
An historic win over El Salvador had Panama jumping for joy. Now is the time to focus on adding to that. Both Costa Rica and Guatemala are vastly more established in the South American C Championship. Targeting a win over either would be a much tougher ask than against the newcomers. Panama will enter the match against Nicaragua as favorites.
Prediction: Third Place
| DATE | FIXTURE |
| Sunday August 27 | Costa Rica vs Panama |
| Sunday August 27 | Guatemala vs Nicaragua |
| Wednesday August 30 | Costa Rica vs Nicaragua |
| Wednesday August 20 | Guatemala vs Panama |
| Saturday September 02 | Nicaragua vs Panama |
| Saturday September 02 | Costa Rica vs Guatemala |
