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

Dominican Republic
The 2018 Rugby Americas North (RAN) Men’s 15’s competition is underway. The 2018 RAN opener took place at Kaya Mafalda Salsbach in Curaçao. In what was the opening match of 2018 the Dominican Republic recorded a 46-17 away victory in the season opener. The results sees the Dominican Republic shooting up the Americas Rankings, climbing some 12 places. Curaçao are not so fortunate. Their home defeat means they now fall below El Salvador to occupy the bottom spot in the Americas Rankings.

Uruguay u20’s
Los Teritos retained their South American u20’s title, going through the 2018 tournament unbeaten. The Uruguayans recorded three comfortable victories – defeating Colombia 99-5, Paraguay 38-12 and Chile 41-7.  Chile finished in second position with two wins while Paraguay was the next best. Colombia and Brazil each won one of their three matches while Venezuela was winless in the tournament. The results see Uruguay qualifying for the 2018 u20’s World Rugby Trophy in Romania. A North American qualifier will also compete, giving the Americas two out of the eight spots.

Jaguares
Los Jaguares recorded their third win of the season, downing the Rebels in Melbourne 25-22 on Saturday. The victory came despite the Melbourne Rebels scoring the opening three tries of the match. Crossing for Los Jaguares were wingers Sebastián Cancelliere, Ramiro Moyano, and inside center Bautista Ezcurra. While the backs scored all the points the forwards performed admirably with Marcos Kremer being a standout performer. The win appeared unlikely during the week as the team missed their flight out of Buenos Aires due to fog. Ultimately they trained in Santiago, Chile, before arriving in Melbourne on Thursday.

Americas Players in Europe
There were some notable performances from Americas players in the European leagues this past weekend. In the Top 14 Facundo Isa helped set up a try from Chris Ashton and scored one of his own on Saturday. On Sunday Benjamín Urdapilleta landed 16 points for Castres who defeated La Rochelle in a remarkable away win. On Sunday flyer Juan Imhoff scored against Toulouse. In the Guinness Pro 14 Championship Blaine Scully was a try scorer for the Cardiff Blues who won away against the Southern Kings in South Africa. Meanwhile Argentine center Nicolás de Battista signed a deal to play for the next two seasons in the Pro 14.

Chris Wyles
History was made on London on Sunday. The USA captain from the 2015 World Cup played for Saracens for the 250th time. Wyles joined Saracens in 2008 from rivals Northampton Saints. His professional career began prior to that for Nottingham in 2004. In addition to being an outstanding performer for Saracens, the club has been crucial to his success for the Eagles. Upon his international retirement following the World Cup, Wyles had made more appearances at fullback than any other player in Eagles history. He played in three World Cups and would earn 54 test caps.

Ontario Arrows
On Wednesday the Arrows made waves with the announcement that they have formed a partnership with one of Super Rugby’s most iconic franchises – the Hurricanes. The Wellington-based Super Rugby franchise rank among the elite professional organizations across the globe. Their beginning coincides with rugby union’s decision to turn fully professional in 1996 and were one of the original teams in the Super 12 (now Super Rugby). The new relationship would appear to be a strong indication of the Arrows as a future team in Major League Rugby.

 

UNDER

Canada at the Commonwealth Games
Canada failed to win a medal in either the Men’s or Women’s Rugby Sevens competitions at the Commonwealth Games in Australia this past weekend. Canada’s women’s team had the better tournament, reaching the Semi Finals though they were defeated by England to miss out on Bronze. A disastrous second half in the men’s opening match against Kenya saw them miss out on the rankings matches entirely, a disappointing showing considering their 8th place overall finish on the 2016-17 HSBC Sevens Series. The only other Americas team participating, Jamaica’s men, lost all three of their matches.

Toronto Weather
Rugby United New York and the Ontario Arrows were to play over the weekend but their match was cancelled in the interests of player welfare. The reason for this was an untimely ice storm that descended upon Toronto on the weekend. Both teams took the decision for the cancellation based on the risk of injury being above the threshold for playing matches at this level. The match will now be rescheduled for later this year, with Ontario’s new home opener set for May 5 against Boston Mystics.

Facundo Bosch
The Argentine hooker suffered an injury while playing against Oyonnax last weekend. Though relatively minor, it has ruled him out for the remainder of the season. His club won the match to likely save themselves from relegation. Bosch won the man-of-the-match award and was also a try scorer. His form this season has been of note and the club has rewarded him with regular game time. Should Argentine require a hooker beyond Agustín Creevy and Julián Montoya then Bosch will be among the first names on Daniel Hourcade’s list.

El Interior
Sevens of the eight Quarter Finalists in this year’s Nacional del Clubes are URBA clubs. Buenos Aires has all but one of the final eight in Argentina’s National Club competition. The one from el interior is Duendes, a club from Rosario. All four Quarter Finals are to take place on Saturday May 05. Dandies will play away against San Luis in the opening Quarter Final. The three others have Hindú, Pucará and SIC at home against Alumni, Belgrano and Newman respectively.

Rugby Europe Relegation and RWC Qualifiers
The relegation match between Rugby Europe Trophy winners Portugal and Germany, last place finishers in the Rugby Europe Championship, will not be played on April 28. The extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Rugby Europe World Cup qualifying process will now see the match likely moved to the June test window. Germany’s participation in the match is uncertain following revelations questioning Belgium’s ineligible players during the Rugby Europe Championship. There are further complications with Romania and Spain also charged with the same indiscretion. The results may disqualify one of all and may mean changes to the June Internationals. Indeed Russia may now be required to compete against Portugal for the right to play Samoa in a qualifying play-off.