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

USA South
The USA South Panthers are the 2018 Rugby Americas North (RAN) Champions. A 42-14 home victory over the Cayman Islands on Saturday sees the Panthers taking out the annual title. It was their second win of 2018 in RAN competition, their prior victory being by a scoreline of 48-28. They lost 34-33 against Trinidad & Tobago yet due to complications matches involving Trinidad & Tobago were removed from the RAN Championship.

Brazil, Chile
The 2018 November Internationals will see history being made. Brazil and Chile have secured historic home matches against the Maori All Blacks. The New Zealand side will tour the Americas playing against the USA in Chicago before flying south to play matches in São Paulo and Santiago. Confirmation of the tour underlines the credibility of both Brazil and the Chile, progress entirely linked together with the arrival of the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC).

Seattle Seawolves
The Seattle Seawolves are the inaugural Major League Rugby (MLR) champions. Their title was won on Saturday with an upset 23-19 victory over the Glendale Raptors in San Diego. The fixture itself was the third of the season between the sides. Both regular season matches were won by the Glendale Raptors, making the championship decider all the more stunning. International flavor was apparent in the win with tries coming from Canadian Ray Barkwill, South African Riekert Hattingh, and Fijian William Rasileka.

Jaguares
In their third season of Super Rugby Los Jaguares have achieved their objective. With one round remaining in the regular season the Argentine franchise has confirmed itself in the play-off’s. A Quarter Finals birth awaits Mario Ledesma’s side with the opposition and location of the play-off to be revealed this coming weekend. Los Jaguares face the Sharks in their final regular season fixture in Durban. Victory will give them a more favorable Quarter Final.

Rodrigo Capó Ortega
For some Superman is a super hero while for others Rodrigo Capó Ortega is Superman. The amazing career of the Montevideo second-rower will continue for another year in France. The 37-year-old will play his 18th season in the Top 14 for Castres. It may not be his final one but what it will be is prime preparation for Los Teros. Cape Ortega played in RWC 2003, his final RWC match being against England in Brisbane, Australia. 16 years later in Kamaishi, Japan he is set to smash the world record of longest time between RWC appearances.

UNDER

World Rugby U20’s Stock Market
World Rugby officially disqualified Romania and Spain from the RWC 2019 qualifying process for the fielding of ineligible players. Spain’s case was specifically for their use of two players who had played for France U20’s vs Wales U20’s, making them ‘captured’. Meanwhile in the 2018 June Internationals 37 players with World Rugby U20’s experience were involved for a different country. All these players had World Rugby approval, and many cases make the World Rugby U20’s resemble a stock exchange. England’s new kiwi Brad Shields joins many country changers including Allan Dell, Gareth Anscombe, Ross Moriarty, Sekope Kepu, Shannon Frizell, CJ Stander, Dean Budd, and Braam Steyn as players being very well paid to play for a different test side than that from their U20’s days.

Yet More Super Rugby Officiating Concerns
2018 has not been a good year for rugby officiating. Dreadful officiating saw Belgium accounting for Spain in a RWC qualifier. That match would then go on to expose appalling governance from Rugby Europe and World Rugby. Controversial red cards have both been given and not by rugby’s top officials. In Europe Top 14 teams are still unable to be allocated a neutral referee who can officiate in French. Meanwhile in Super Rugby a neutral is a luxury. Los Jaguares have regularly had their matches refereed by men from the nation of their opposition. Against the Bulls on Saturday this was the case and serious questions emerged of multiple decisions which went the way of the Bulls.

Rodrigo Báez
Rodrigo Báez has been forced into early retirement. Aged 29 the flanker from Mendoza has been forced out of rugby through injury. In 2016-2017 he was a stand-out for Los Jaguares in Super Rugby. He was, however, not among the regulars of Daniel Hourcade. In total he played 17 times for Argentina, doing so from 2010-2017. His final cap came against Georgia in June 2017. Being the go to man when injuries arrived, Báez featured for his country in wins over Australia and France.

Lomas
The latest round of the URBA Top 12 saw San Luis winning again. Their 33-3 win over Lomas keeps them three points above Alumni in first position of the table. Lomas are not so fortunate. After eight rounds of the season Lomas have just 2 competition points. The strugglers are rooted to bottom spot of the table, seven points behind San Martín. Climbing the standings will require significant progress.

Zimbabwe
This past week was a messy one for Zimbabwe literally both on and off the field. Playing away to Tunisia, the southern African country lost 18-14 on Saturday. It was a remarkable win for Tunisia considering they had been beaten 118-0 by Namibia in their prior match. Yet this game was one tarnished by yet another off-field controversy. While the circumstances have blurred from various reports since, the fact was that the Zimbabwe team slept on the street, a poor image for the game and another black mark on the 2019 RWC qualifying process. At this rate it will be a miracle if we can get through the Repechage process without further damage to confidence in rugby’s administrators.