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 Qualifies For RWC 2019
After falling to the USA last year and Uruguay in February it is finally mission accomplished for Canada. The long and painful stretch came to a close in Marseille on Friday with the North Americans overcoming Hong Kong to book the final place on the plane to Japan 2019. Canada will open their World Cup against Italy and close it against Namibia. These are two great opportunities for Canada. In between they will face the might of South Africa and New Zealand.

Kingsley Jones
It wasn’t just the team who earned plaudits for the Repechage victory. Kingsley Jones was a happy man after steering his charges to the goal he had been entrusted with. After an immensely difficult first year in charge Coach Jones can now enjoy a bit of respite for the holidays before getting ready for the run-up to the World Cup. There will always be debate on selections but credit must be given when it is due – Jones & Co. got the job done.

Canada Women
Canada survived a second-half scare to defeat Wales 38-21 at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday. Three unanswered tries in the final quarter sealed Canada’s first test win since the 2017 World Cup. In a game largely contested by the forwards Canada led 10-7 at the break only to trail 21-17 at the hour mark. They found another gear to make it two wins from three on their four-match tour, their final match coming against Scotland on Tuesday.

Belize
Central American country, Belize joined the international rugby family on Sunday. The historic first match involving Belize was against neighbors Guatemala in Belize City. The sevens fixture was the first stage of international competition and will not be the last. In the future there is a clear path for Belize to play at the senior levels.

Uruguay
Uruguay wrote history on Saturday, claiming a first ever win over Romania. The 27-20 victory came on full-time with replacement Agustín Ormaechea scoring an intercept try. Andrés Vilaseca had earlier scored one of his own, adding to his phenomenal record of intercept tries. Uruguay won with 14 men as Ignacio Dotti had been yellow carded with 8 minutes remaining. It was a big result for Los Teros after being badly beaten by Fiji a week before.

Alumni
Buenos Aires club Alumni exacted revenge to shock 2017 champions Hindú in the 2018 Top 12 Final on Sunday. Alumni’s 26-17 victory is the 6th URBA title by the club, the last coming in 2001. Hindú were the 2017 champions, defeating Alumni 27-20. Alumni’s 17-year-wait ended at the Cathedral in San Isidro. It was the setting for a great occasion as fans of Hindú and Alumni packed the venue and seated together, embracing in the spirit of rugby.

RWC Repechage
Canada went through the Repechage tournament unbeaten but were pushed hard by both Germany and Hong Kong. The Central Europeans were only in the tournament due to massive controversy in the Rugby Europe Championship. Both Romania and Spain are superior to Germany, meaning there is depth in Europe to compete for World Cup places. The new format itself was compelling and well-received, a clear improvement in the World Cup qualifying process.

Rugby World Cup 2019
Predict the outcome of the pool phase at your own peril. Fiji humbled France this weekend in one of the shocks of 2018. Georgia defeated Tonga having just beaten Samoa. All of a sudden Australia and Wales have more competition than pundits recently expected. Uruguay have a lot of planning to do to face these sides in the tournament. France’s loss is good news for Argentina and the USA. Meanwhile Italy were no good at home against either Australia or New Zealand. This brings hope for Canada.

UBC Thunderbirds
The T-Birds are one again the best Men’s University team in Canada. They defeated Ontario champions Queen’s on Sunday to make it back-to-back titles. The independently-organized tournament took a step up in quality in its second year, and with several Canada age-grade representatives spread among the six teams it gave the national selectors another group of games to scout talent. There might have been a couple test players had Ben LeSage and Theo Sauder not been playing for Canada in Marseille.

Perry Baker
Make it two for the Eagles Sevens flyer. Baker won his second consecutive World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year award on Sunday. This comes as something of a surprise given he missed three tournaments last season and was not named in the official 2017-18 HSBC Dream Team. Evidently Baker’s influence at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, where the Eagles finished in 6th place, was enough to vault him into the top spot.

 

UNDER

Argentina
Argentina were again beaten, adding to their losing streak which began at home against New Zealand in the Rugby Championship. The European tour will gone down in history as a poor one with 0 wins and 3 losses in their test matches. Nicolás Sánchez played his final match before joining Stade Français. He had a poor game, missing three penalties. Had he landed them Argentina would have scored more points than Scotland. The scrum was improved but the team was, overall, far from that which defeated South Africa and Australia earlier this year.

USA
The Eagles unbeaten year came to an end against Ireland on Saturday. It was always going to be the case with Ireland arguably the world’s top team. The final result of 57-14 involved a second half blitz which kept the USA scoreless. The Eagles had been 10 points behind at the interval. The match was very much a learning experience but was also a vital part of preparing for RWC 2019. In the pool phase the USA will be up against three Top 10 sides – England, France, and Argentina.

Brazil
Two late penalty goals from Tomás Albornoz saved Tucumán from defeat as they came away 34-31 winners over Brazil at Tucumán Lawn Tennis club on Friday evening. Os Tupis had led 17-10 at the half and 31-28 until the 74th minute of a back-and-forth game. While the result would have been very satisfactory for Brazil in years gone by this is no longer the case. Brazil’s players are professionals while Tucuman was a provincial side thrown together with little preparation.

Perpignan
10 rounds of the Top 14 have come and gone yet Perpignan remain winless. The Catalans were beaten at home this past Saturday by Castres, the 2018 champions. With it Perpignan have 4 competition points and are way behind where they need to be to avoid relegation. Contributing to their downfall on Saturday was Benjamin Urdapilleta (Argentina), and Rodrigo Capó Ortega (Uruguay). The former made his comeback from injury to score 11 points and the latter captained the side to the win.

World Rugby Officiating
Once again we are left perplexed by some of the calls made by international match officials. Owen Farrell’s blatant shoulder charge on Izack Rodda went unpunished, while Fiji were robbed of a wonderful try against France due to a TMO reversal that was marginal at best. These calls came in the wake of an earlier Farrell ‘tackle’ that caused major debate against South Africa, and World Rugby insisting that the TMO can only overrule a call with compelling evidence. The November test window has produced numerous inconsistent and highly controversial decisions both on and off the field which simply must be addressed by World Rugby heading towards RWC 2019.