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

Colombia
The greatest result in the history of Colombian history took place on Saturday. Los Tucanes recorded their first ever win over Paraguay, and with it became the Americas Rugby Challenge champions. The 44-29 victory sees Colombia rising in the Americas Rankings above Paraguay to 7th and overcoming seven prior defeats against the Paraguayans. Remarkably in 20014 and 2005 Paraguay won 79-7 and 82-8 against Colombia.

Chile
Chile have pulled off an important signing – obtaining the services of Pablo Lemoine as Head Coach. From Montevideo, Uruguay Lemoine is among the best known rugby names from his country. As a player he earned 50 caps for Los Teros, appearing in RWCs 1999 and 2003.His test match playing career spanned 16 years with him debuting against Spain in 1995 and playing his final test against Romania in 2010. Less than two year after playing his final set match Lemoine was the Head Coach of Uruguay. He took them past Russia to qualify for RWC 2015 and coached Germany this year, seeing them do far better than anticipated against Samoa.

Uruguay u20
Both Canada and Uruguay fell on match-day one of the World Rugby u20Trophy in Romania. ON match-day two they faced each other. The match was a thriller with Matías D’Avanzo scoring with the clock showing full-time to give Uruguay a win 27-23. Uruguay had led the contest for the majority of the match before Canada hit the lead with a late try. Uruguay then responded to snatch victory.

Uruguay XV
The Uruguay XV defeated Brazil in a training match on Thursday. Played in São José dos Campos, the visitors were 41-36 winners. The match was the final hit-out before the Americas Pacific Challenge which takes place in Uruguay in October. The match was not played under usual restrictions. As such substitutions were not limited to eight players. This saw a lot of free-flowing rugby with attack being there theme from both sides. It continued the road to Japan 2019, which sees Uruguay far better placed than prior to RWC 2015 or earlier editions of the World Cup.

Martín Bustos Moyano
Eleven points from the boot of Martín Bustos Moyano saw Bayonne winning 21-12 on the road against Massy on Friday. The former Puma has previously sees Bayonne winning promotion from the Pro D2 to the Top 14. The club will be looking to the Córdoba wonder-kicker to repeat history again this season.

Mauricio Reggiardo
On Sunday Mauricio Reggiardo saw Agen to a two point victory over Perpignan. It was the first win of the Top 14 season for the club. With Agen among the leading contenders for relegation competition points are vital. For Reggiardo himself he has secured his coaching future, yet not for Agen. Starting next season he will be at the helm of the 2018 Top 14 champions, Castres. It is a dream move for any coach and sees another Argentine in charge of a leading team. He joins Mario Ledesma and Gonzalo Quesada as Argentina’s top coaches today.

 

UNDER

Guyana
Barely a shot was fired from Guyana until the second half of their third and final match of the Americas Rugby Challenge. In game’s one and two Guyana were beaten 71-7 by Colombia and 86-7 by Paraguay. It was against Mexico that Guyana played their best rugby. They came back from trailing 31-12 at half time to lose 48-26.

Paraguay
A solid win over Mexico and a highly impressive win over Guyana saw Paraguay well placed going into the final day of the Americas Rugby Challenge against Colombia. But against Colombia the wheels came tumbling off. Despite it being Paraguay’s first defeat against Los Tucanes it was not a shock result. In May Paraguay won the same fixture by 2 points, requiring an 18 point come back and for Colombia to be scoreless in the second half. Raúl Pérez has plenty of work ahead of him in Asunción.

Ramiro Herrera
Back on August 05 Mario Ledesma formally requested Juan Figallo and Ramiro Herrera for the Rugby Championship. The former joined Los Pumas in Durban and would start against South Africa in the Rugby Championship both there and in Mendoza. Herrera is yet to join the roster whatsoever. Yet hooker Facundo Bosch joined from Agen for the Mendoza test match and Gastón Cortés is to join the team in Nelson from Leicester for this coming Saturday’s match against New Zealand.

Benjamín Urdapilleta
Castres defeated Lyon 19-16 at home on Saturday. It was a come-from-behind victory yet was an uncomfortable one. The Tarns struggled tremendously with their goal-kicking. From their 9 shots at goal 6 were misses. Both Benjamin Urdapilleta and Rory Kockott were far from being their trademark selves. To the contrary goal-kicking was erratic.