Up and Under

Up and Under is a weekly exclusive on Americas Rugby News which reviews the best and worst from games involving the Americas teams over the previous week.

 

UP

Americas Rugby Challenge
The Estadio Cincuentenario in Medellín, Colombia will play host to the inaugural Americas Rugby Challenge. Taking place from August 24 to September 01 the competition is to be the ‘B’ version of the Americas Rugby Championship. The competition will be involve Colombia, Guyana, Mexico and Paraguay. It sees two each from Sudamérica Rugby and Rugby Americas North. This, in itself, is by design. The Americas Rankings will take on new meaning with changes certain. At present Paraguay is 7th, Colombia 8th, Guyana 9th, and Mexico is 12th. Between Guyana and Mexico are Trinidad & Tobago and the Cayman Islands. Both missed out with Mexico preferred based on market potential.

Major League Rugby
ESPN is to broadcast Major League Rugby. The landmark deal sees the inaugural season having 18 matches broadcast across multiple platforms. The new league has also confirmed that regional sports networks will also carry the same package to local markets. With 13 games already committed to CBS Sports Network, it means that all 31 matches of the 2018 season will be broadcast live. The regular season begins on Saturday, April 21.

New York Rugby
It’s back to back success stories for Rugby United New York, this time live from the Bronx where they defeated the Boston Mystics by 50-0 on Saturday. Despite frosty conditions a very encouraging sold-out crowd of 2,000 packed into Gaelic Park to watch the historic occasion. All systems are go for Major League Rugby in 2019 and New York looks to be a very exciting addition to a competition whose stock is rising without having played a single regular season game.

Tyler Ardron
In his first Super Rugby start the Canadian World Cup captain produced a gem of a performance. Playing lock he barged over for an early try and would go on to set up another. Ardron’s performance coupled with a growing injury list for the franchise suggest his chances of regular game time are now very good indeed. Canadians can now prepare themselves to follow the Chiefs religiously.

Emiliano Boffelli
After six rounds of Super Rugby this year the leading try scorer is Emiliano Boffelli. The Argentine winger has six tries thus far. Five players have scored five tries thus far. Boffelli’s teammate, Bautista Delguy is one of them. The four others are George Bridge (Crusaders), Aphiwe Dyantyi (Lions), Akira Ioane (Blues), Jack Maddocks (Melbourne Rebels). The form of both Boffelli and Delguy is fantastic for Daniel Hourcade. Though with Santiago Cordero, Juan Imhoff, and Axel Muller back in the picture it is actually better a bigger deal. Boffelli could now move to outside center, arguably his best position. Deluge, meanwhile, is a fullback playing wing due to the presence of Joaquín Tuculet.

Jaguares
The season did not start well but the signs are that the team will do better in 2018 than in both 2016 and 2017. Mario Ledesma’s appointing of Pablo Matera as captain was a masterstroke. Matera is among the best flankers in the competition. He leads by example and is able to get on with business without questioning decisions. It was his opening minute break which led to Los Jaguares’ first try with Bautista Delguy scoring. The performance against the Lions was the best from Los Jaguares in 2018. The goal is now to play at that level on a weekly basis.

Americas Players in Europe
This past weekend saw tremendous performances from Americas players in Europe. DTH van der Merwe scored a double on return in Scotland, Blaine Scully scored in Wales, AJ MacGinty impressed in England, Tomás Baravalle scored in South Africa and Martín Bustos Moyano did so in France. All mentioned players scored their points in winning efforts.

Pumas Back to Genuine Article
Serious change is coming for Los Pumas. European-Based players are to again be considered for international duty. The altered policy is to be made official by the new UAR President Marcelo Rodríguez. He deems that Los Pumas must have the best players. In 2016 and 2017 many players simply earned caps by virtue of being Jaguares. Meanwhile some top Argentine players were not considered whatsoever. The changes mean caps for some in Europe, or for many. The debate as to who is the best per position will begin. Back in Buenos Aires the Jaguares must perform or miss out.

 

UNDER

Felipe Berchesi, Martín Chiappessoni
Dax is now second to bottom of the Pro D2. The club has 42 championship points, 11 fewer than Carcassonne. Dax’s narrow path to avoid relegation is paper thin. The club must win both remaining matches with bonus points and hope Carcassonne obtain zero points. For Uruguay fly half Felipe Berchesi and his country these are nervous times. The career of Argentine Flanker Martín Chiappessoni is also set to be impacted.

Juan Pablo Estelles
2016 Olympian Juan Pablo Estelles is to depart the Northampton Saints at the end of the season. He is being released by the Aviva Premiership club. He joined the club in November 2016 and that same month would play for Argentina against England and Scotland. For the Northampton Saints he has made 15 appearances thus far. He has scored two tries while playing for the team at senior level but has not been a regular in the Aviva Premiership. A return to Rosario is now on the cards.

World Cup Qualifying
The qualifying process for the 2019 World Cup has gone completely off the rails. First we witnessed the shocking scenes in Brussels last weekend that saw Spain file a formal complaint, then at the end of the week it was confirmed that Tahiti had been disqualified for fielding two ineligible players. Just yesterday we learned that Belgium are now themselves in trouble for fielding an ineligible player against Germany. There is finger pointing in all directions now and World Rugby is under pressure to deliver their verdicts sooner than later. The process itself is a mess and surely will be rethought ahead of RWC 2023.

Hindú
The latest round of the Nacional de Clubes saw reigning champions Hindú losing to Tucumán Lawn Tennis on Saturday. In their third match of the 2018 season the Don Torcuato club lost for the second time. It happened despite Hindú having former RWC Pumas Santiago Fernández and Hernán Senillosa in the team. Jaguares scrumhalf Felipe Ezcurra also started. Tucumán LT scored through the boot of Federico Mentz and Domingo Miotti, the latter continues to catch the eyes of national selectors.