Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The injuries are racking up as the Greene King IPA Championship takes its final voyage in 2017. Justin Blanchet (broken arm), Brett Beukeboom (concussion), Matt Evans (hamstring), Gastón Cortes (calf), and Thretton Palamo (foot) are all out and this week there is no sign of Ronnie McLean either. At this rate we’ll be lucky to see any Americas players at all in the English second division a month from now.
In fact 75% of this week’s contingent have already played. Eagles prop Dino Waldren made his first start in the Championship with Canadian roommate Kyle Baillie on the blindside flank as they defeated Nottingham 21-17 at Lady Bay.
Another Eagles cap Nick Civetta had a memorable match for Doncaster against Yorkshire Carnegie but for the wrong reasons. The big second row was sent off in the 39th minute for a head-to-head incident with Carnegie scrumhalf Will Homer. We will no doubt hear more about that later. Despite the man advantage it took Carnegie until stoppage time to get the game-winning try in the 32-30 result.
The only Americas representative left to play this weekend is Nicolás de Battista, who leads Cornish Pirates out from his usual midfield spot against Jersey Reds on Sunday. Pirates are missing Beukeboom, Evans, and Nicolás Coronel for a match they need to win to get closer to the top half of the table.
