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

Brazil
Brazil downed the Georgia XV to write history in Tbilisi. Os Tupis completed a 20-18 victory, one of the greatest ever recorded by the South Americans. With an eye to playing host to the Maori All Blacks in November, downing the Georgia XV suggests the Brazilians are very much a team rapidly on the rise. In South America Brazil is now regularly defeating Chile while Os Tupis have also claimed the scalps of the Argentina XV, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, and the USA in recent years.

Colombia Men’s 7’s
Los Tucanes won Gold on home soil at the 2018 CAC Games in Barranquilla. Colombia defeated Mexico in the tournament final to win Gold while the Bronze Medals went to Jamaica who brushed Trinidad & Tobago aside in a 26-5 performance. In total there were eight competing countries in the Men’s section of Rugby 7’s at the CAC Games. Colombia’s Gold Medals came in a competition including Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Venezuela.

Colombia Women’s 7’s
Las Tucanes won Gold Medals at the CAC Games, downing neighbors Venezuela convincingly in the tournament final. The 20-0 victory rounded off a highly successful tournament for Las Tucanes. Also among the medals were Venezuela and Mexico, who claimed Silver and Bronze respectively. Colombia defeated French Guyana, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, and Venezuela. Mexico claimed Bronze by defeating French Guyana.

USA
RWC 2019 sees the USA playing as Americas 1 for the first time. It is to also be the first RWC in which the Eagles field a fully professional team. Combining are Major League Rugby and foreign leagues. In fact over half of their side will be playing abroad heading into the World Cup year. Paul Lasike is the latest to join an elite club, signing this past week for the Harlequins. He joins three Eagles teammates in the Premiership – Saracens prop Titi Lamositele, Worcester Warriors hooker Joe Taufete’e, and Sale Sharks’ flyhalf AJ MacGinty.

Argentina
Mario Ledesma is the new Head Coach of Argentina. The 45-year-old replaces Daniel Hourcade who stood down from the position in June following a dour run of results. His contract is until the end of 2021. Ledesma takes on the position as the first of a kind. Unlike all prior Head Coaches of Argentina before him Ledesma has coached professionally both in Argentina and abroad as well as playing as a professional abroad and playing in four RWC tournaments. This combination of work and playing history makes Ledesma an extremely accomplished candidate to take over a team which has struggled since RWC 2015.

Canada ‘A’
Kingsley Jones has selected a 31-man Canada Selects roster for a two-match trip to France later this month. The fixtures against Top 14 sides Castres Olympique and Clermont Auvergne. Domestic talent and professionals combine as Canada searches for the formula to qualify for RWC 2019. Phil Mack captains the squad and is joined by Seattle Seawolves teammate Ray Barkwill, with a third Major League Rugby representative in NOLA Gold vice-captain Eric Howard. France-based Benoît Pifféro sees his first international action since early February and two players currently situated in England are named in flanker Matt Heaton and Leeds Beckett second row Adrian Wadden. Wadden is one of five uncapped players named. The others are Mike Sheppard, Clint Lemkus, Mike Nieuwenhuysen and Aidan McMullan.

Quebec-Atlantic Rock
The Quebec-Atlantic Rock stunned the Ontario Blues by 34-22 in their first round match of the Canadian Rugby Championship in Montreal on Saturday evening. A back-and-forth first half saw the Rock take a 24-22 lead into the break and they never looked back with the Blues failing to find the score sheet at all in a very forgettable second half display. Ontario will need to regroup in double-quick fashion with the return match in Burlington on Tuesday evening. The Rock take a 12-point lead with the aggregate score from the two determining seeding for the CRC Finals in Calgary later this month.

Centroamericano
A Rebranded Centroamericano 2018 tournament starts this coming weekend. The new competition replaces the South American C Championship yet retains its status as uniquely including Central American Republics. The competitors are to be El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama. Not taking part are Costa Rica and Guatemala. Both earned promotion to this year’s Sudamericano 4 Naciones B. The 2018 tournament will be played in Guatemala with Peru and Venezuela being the remaining competitors. The rebranded Centroamericano is to be played in multiple locations with matches being played on August 11, 18 and 25. The player-friendly scheduling will enable full recovery between matches, a notable change from prior years which tended to have match splayed every three days.

Jaguares
Four players – Emiliano Boffelli, Bautista Ezcurra, Bautista Delguy, and Marcos Kremer signed to remain Jaguares until 2021. The four men were heavily involved for Mario Ledesma’s Jaguares in the 2018 Super Rugby campaign. The signatures of the four players until the end of 2021 means the pick of the newcomers in the post-2015 era are remaining at home. It is a move which is anticipated to see others following. All are well-placed to be regulars in RWC 2019 in Japan as well as the upcoming Rugby Championship.

Rodrigo Capó Ortega
Rodrigo Capó Ortega was named among the best 3 Locks in the Top 14 by Midi Olympique. The 37-year-old Castres player was listed together with Leone Nakarawa (Racing 92) and Nicolaas Van Rensburg (Montpellier) by the publication. The Uruguayan recently signed a new contract with Castres to remain at the club until June 2019. It sees the veteran adding to his phenomenal career at the club which dates back to 2002. This year he captained Castres to the title and also played in Uruguay’s series win over Canada which saw Los Teros qualifying for RWC 2019. He picked up his 41st test cap in the home win which sealed Uruguay’s place in the Japan hosted RWC.

 

UNDER

Argentina XV
Argentina’s Juan Imhoff captained Racing 92 to a 14-8 victory over the Argentina XV on Friday. The RWC 2011 and 2015 Pumas winger did so in the Rugby Summer Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia. It make the third consecutive defeat for the Argentina XV, a team lacking clear identity and purpose. Is the team serving Los Pumas? Does it realistically contain players from 1-15 who could be called-up to replace an injured player? No. Instead there was a clear lack of players with Super Rugby experience and realistically only two likely to play in the Rugby Championship – Tomás Cubelli and Juan Cruz Mallía.

Nicaragua
The exciting new Centroamericano did come with a downside. Missing from the rebranded Centroamericano 2018 tournament is Nicaragua. This is the case despite Nicaragua having played in the 2017 tournament, doing so against Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. Nicaragua not only participated but claimed a 46-36 victory over Panama. The Nicaraguans proved to be more competitive than Panama against both Costa Rica and Guatemala. Yet the Centroamericano 2018 will be played without them.

Ecuador
Confirmation of the Centroamericano also confirms no international rugby for Ecuador in 2018. The same happened in 2018, this after Ecuador had previously won the 2013 South American C Championship in 2013. As a result Ecuador were promoted to the South American B Championship where they competed against Colombia, Peru and Venezuela in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Zimbabwe
The mission of Zimbabwe qualifying for RWC 2019 has failed. The first African country to compete at a RWC did so in RWCs 1987 and 1991 but has been unable to qualify since then. The Ivory Coast and South Africa debuted in RWC 1995, while Namibia did so in 1999. South Africa have won two RWCs while Namibia have played in every tournament since their first. On Saturday Namibia edged closer to continuing this trend by defeating Zimbabwe 58-28 in Harare. The RWC qualifying victory means the Africa 2 country to join Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong will certainly be the loser of Namibia vs Kenya on August 18.

Prairie Wolf Pack
The BC Bears claimed top spot in the Canadian Rugby Championship west division on Friday evening by brushing aside a listless Prairie Wolf Pack by 37-20 at Klahanie Park in Vancouver.  It was a bitterly disappointing result for the Wolf Pack who looked a shadow of the team that won in Calgary last week. They now return home to regroup as the number two seed in the west, with the winner on aggregate between the Ontario Blues and Quebec-Atlantic Rock awaiting in the Semi Final.

Santiago González Iglesias
Three years of Super Rugby, more Rugby Championship campaigns and a Rugby World Cup. Santiago González Iglesias was a Daniel Hourcade man but he is not a Mario Ledesma one. He received zero starts at fly half under Ledesma and was third choice for inside center. The departure of Nicolás Sánchez’ to Stade Français is not changing the picture as González Iglesias is simply out of favor. Nicolás Cantarutti, Juan Bautista Daireaux, Martín Elías, Tomás Granella, and Domingo Miotti are all uncapped but serious possibilities for Super Rugby and for Los Pumas. Another is fullback Juan Cruz Mallía who played fly half vs Racing 92 on Friday.

Jaguares to Pumas Props
Ledesma has made it known that Los Jaguares do not have the props required for Argentina to be competitive. He has asked permission to select from Europe. This potentially means Santiago García Botta and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro will be the only Jaguares props to play for Los Pumas. Enrique Pieretto and rookie Javier Díaz are injured while Felipe Arregui, Santiago Medrano, and Juan Pablo Zeiss are fringe options rather than being ready for Los Pumas. Juan Figallo (Saracens), Ramiro Herrera (Stade Français), Francisco Goméz Kodela (Lyon), and Lucas Noguera Paz (Bath) await phone calls.

Lomas
11 rounds into the URBA Top 12 season and Lomas remain winless. The club’s latest defeat was at home against Belgrano on Saturday. The 50-27 loss furthers the club’s complications. On current standings Lomas are bottom of the URBA Top 12 with 3 competition points. Second to bottom is CUBA with 11 points. By way of contrast Alumni, Belgrano, and San Luis share the lead with 40 points.

Belo Horizonte
Also winless this season is Belo Horizonte. The club from the capital of Minas Gerais state has 0 competition points after three rounds of Brazil’s Super 16. This weekend the club list 13-0 at home against Guanabara from Rio de Janeiro state. With it the club has a conceded 159 points more than it has scored on the field in three games. Both Niteroi and San Diego are winless though they each have a bonus point and a vastly superior for and against record.