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

Canada
Behind the scenes Canada will be celebrating Namibia’s qualification for RWC 2019. There are two reasons for this – (a) Kenya are an easier opponent for Canada to prepare for and face in RWC Repechage and (b) Namibia are in the same pool that Canada will compete in if they succeed in qualifying. Canadians interested in attending RWC 2019 take note of the final pool match in Kamaishi against Namibia. It is Canada’s most winnable match since RWC 2007 and arguably the easiest prospect of a victory since RWC 1999.

El Salvador
Los Torogoces celebrates a home win over Honduras on Saturday. Playing in San Salvador, a 27-24 victory was recorded. It was the first of two matches for El Salvador in the 2018 Centroamericano. Next up is an away match against Panama this coming weekend. Los Torogoces are well placed to challenge for an away victory and have history on their side to win. Should El Salvado achieve a win they will be the 2018 Centroamericano champions.

Brazil
A massive gamble has been made by Brazil. The home international against the Maori All Blacks has seen the CBRu going all out in confirming Morumbi as the stage for the November 10 fixture. The stadium based in South America’s largest city and hub – São Paulo. With a capacity of over 70,000 Brazil are aiming high. The announcement has resulted in significant excitement within Brazil’s rugby community, Americas Rugby News can confirm.

Paraguay
A notable coup d’etat was made with Paraguay unveiling Raúl Pérez as the new Head Coach of the national Men’s team. Pérez takes up the position after stepping down in 2017 from the top job of Los Jaguares in Argentina. Paraguay thereby have a person in charge who is highly reputable. Pérez is highly experienced with the needs of not only professionalism but also amateurism. As a player he earned 21 caps for Los Pumas from 1992-1999.

Uruguay XV
The Uruguay XV defeated Argentine province Córdoba this past week. It was a warm-up ahead of the Americas-Pacific Challenge and saw many players involved who will tour Europe with Los Teros in November. With an eye to RWC 2019 Uruguay is well positioned, notably more so than was the case for RWC 2015.

Facundo Bosch
Juan Figallo played for Argentina on Saturday. It marked the end of the blockade on European-Based players from playing for Los Pumas since RWC 2015. His involvement was noteworthy with his contribution being highly visible. For game two of the Rugby Championship hooker Facundo Bosch will be involved. The uncapped hooker joins the roster from Agen to play in Mendoza. It is a massive accomplishment for him as a player and for Argentina both moving forward and immediately.

Canada u20 Women
Canada’s Women’s u20 Rugby Team dropped their third and final game of the Tri-Nations Cup 27-17 to England on Saturday afternoon at Wanderers Ground in downtown Halifax. Despite the loss the team competed well in heavy rain. The lack of a kicking game forced their hand tactically and gave an overwhelming advantage to the visitors. Canada, however, showed athleticism on attack and defended strongly putting in several big hits that drew applause from the partisan crowd.

 

UNDER

Argentina
Los Pumas were an extremely improved outfit on Saturday compared to that from the June Internationals. The start of the Mario Ledesma regime was very much a success. Yet with Argentina losing the match by 13 points it is simply not possible to place Argentina in a category other than Under.

Canada Selects
The Canada Selects two match tour of France saw two defeats. Little should be read into the results, tough, as Castres and Clermont are elite outfits arguably capable of beating countries including Fiji, and Italy. There were positives from the tour such as the return of Kyle Baillie. Ultimately it served its purpose and Canada can now leave no stone unturned as November draws closer.

Argentina Bench
Argentina led the match at half time. South Africa were much better in the second half but Argentina also  had to do the impossible as the bench was not comparable to their opposition. Fixing this requires the inclusion of many more players from Europe. Of the replacements realistically only Tomás Lavanini and Tomás Lezana are of a comparable quality to the starters in their positions. Moreover the starting backs featured players who are very good without being excellent – notably Bautista Ezcurra, Matías Moroni, and Ramiro Moyano. Europe is again the solution.

Pumas Wingers
Juan Cruz Mallía was Argentina’s number 23 in Durban. This was by virtue of Sebastián Cancelliere being ruled out days before the match. With it no specialist wingers were fit aside from those starting the match for Los Pumas. Game two in Mendoza will see this situation retained. Juan Imhoff will not feature nor will Santiago Cordero or Manuel Montero. The emergency solution is Mallía, a player to have been training as a fly half. Alternatively Moroni can cover. Both are good options albeit neither is the ideal solution – selecting Imhoff.

Jaco Peyper, Egon Seconds
Saturday was not a good day for South African referees. In Sydney Jaco Peyper started poorly in only penalizing a dangerous tackle on Israel Folau worthy of a yellow card. When compared to incidents in other matches throughout 2018 it was an obvious error from Peyper. Added to Australia’s complaints were that scrums and the breakdown were inconsistently refereed. Later on in the day in Windhoek Egon Seconds awarded two controversial tries to Namibia and enabled the same team to illegally steal the ball from Kenya when the Simbas were within scoring range. Rugby Africa did not help matters by enabling a RWC qualifier of this magnitude to have no TMO.