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

Uruguay
Few would have dared suggest that the creation of the Americas Rugby Championship would see Uruguay mounting a four-test winning streak over Canada. On Saturday Los Teros achieved the unlikely feat by claiming a come-from-behind 20-17 victory in Montevideo. Federico Favaro, Ignacio Dotti, and Guillermo Pujadas crossed for tries in the win.

USA
While Uruguay’s win required the players to dig deep the USA’s did not. The Eagles powered to a 71-8  win over Chile. Nine different Eagles ran in tries with AJ MacGinty claiming a career first hat-trick. He also landed five conversions to come within one point of the USA single-game points-scoring record of 26. The victory was expected with the Eagles being favorites for the title. Chile are expected to claim the Wooden Spoon.

Argentina XV
In Patagonia the Argentina XV opened 2019 with a win over Brazil. The 54-3 triumph marked the third time in tournament history that the Argentine side has not conceded a try in a match. They completed to win by scoring eight tries and could have had more. On the flip side the Argentina XV scrum was not consistent with Brazil winning a number of penalties in this area.

Joe Taufete’e
In his 20th test match Joe Taufete’e scored his 15th test try. With it he drew level with Irish legend Keith Wood as the front-rower with the most points in test history. Wood retired following RWC 2003 with 15 tries. His final cap was the Quarter Final defeat against France in Melbourne, Australia. Taufete’e is to have opportunities this year to overtake Wood.

USA Women’s Eagles Sevens
A third-place finish at the Sydney Sevens has seen the Women’s Eagles jump ahead of Canada on the overall standings. The USA are now in second place with Canada in third. With only three tournaments remaining the season both teams look in very good shape to achieve automatic qualification for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Now 14 points behind, 5th-place France have a mountain to climb catch either the North American teams or 4th-place Australia.

USA Men’s Eagles Sevens
The Men’s Eagles have now made the Cup Final of all four of the tournaments on the 2018-19 season. Though they haven’t quite been able to claim the ultimate prize, it keeps them tied with Sydney champions New Zealand on the top of the overall standings with 76 points. Their changes for Olympic qualification also look good with 5th-place England trailing by 21 points. That’s also good news for 11th-place Canada who may not need to enter the Repechage this time around. Meanwhile Argentina enjoyed a record of 5-1 in Sydney and won the Challenge Trophy to maintain their 9th-place overall standing.

Folau Niua
The veteran Eagles playmaker made history on the weekend by appearing in his 63rd HSBC Sevens Series event, surpassing Zack Test to become the all-time most-capped player in USA sevens history. Niua has been a staple in the side since the the 2011-12 season, missing only seven of the 70 tournaments since. He has already appeared on two Sevens World Cups, one 15-a-side World Cup, and the 2016 Olympics. The 34-year-old now looks set to add another Olympic Games to his incredible resume in 2020.

New Orleans Gold
NOLA were 40-31 winners over the Glendale Raptors at Gold Stadium on Saturday. Once again they surprised the pundits to claim victory over the 2018 finalists, doing so despite fielding a young forward pack absent four internationals on ARC duty. NOLA’s homestand continues next week as they host the defending champion Seattle Seawolves in what will now be a highly anticipated clash on Sunday.

San Diego Legion
The Legion claimed a 17-14 victory on Saturday, defeating the defending champion Seattle Seawolves in the rain at Torero Stadium. Mike Te’o marked his return from long-term injury with a try and the scrum even managed a remarkable penalty try. The result means that both teams have one win and one loss from the first two rounds of the MLR season. Next weekend San Diego are at home against the Houston SaberCats while Seattle travel to New Orleans to play the tournament leading NOLA Gold.

Utah Warriors
The last team to start the 2019 season were the Warriors. On the road against Austin Elite, they came away with a 17-9 victory with Ara Elkington and Lance Williams scoring the game’s only tries. Utah will not play in Week 3 but will instead play a friendly against a future MLR opponent, the New England Free Jacks.

 

UNDER

Chile
Los Cóndores were thoroughly outmatched by the visitors USA Eagles on Saturday. This did not come as a surprise which, in itself, is the very problem at hand. Chile know this themselves and are working to improve the level of the national team through a high performance system and a future team in the Liga Americana de Rugby. This is a long-term project and improved results are some ways away yet.

Canada
A 3-point loss against Uruguay sees Canada set to end a World Cup cycle as the fourth-ranked team in the Americas. This has never happened before with RWC 2015 being the first in history in which Canada was not ranked in the Top 2. Both Uruguay and the USA have improved greatly while Canada has stagnated. Many of those involved against Uruguay did not do their 2019 World Cup selection chances any favors.

Theo Sauder
Fingers were pointed at Canada’s fullback following the disappointing loss against Los Teros. Sauder was chosen as primary goal kicker and he proceeded to miss four of his five kicks at goal. While there is no hiding from the criticism, it should be noted that Sauder is not renowned for his kicking game. In fact none of the players on the pitch were recognized high-percentage goal kickers though Ciaran Hearn has in the past been used as a long-range option. Kingsley Jones may need to alter his selections against Brazil to rectify the problem with uncapped duo Will Percillier and Will Kelly both regular goal kickers.

Austin Elite
Bottom of the MLR table are two rounds is the Elite. The Texan capital city outfit have two losses, both of which came at home. First was a 21-20 defeat against the Houston SaberCats and then came a 17-9 loss against the Utah Warriors. The pressure is on to turn this around in Week 3. It will be a tough assignment as the Toronto Arrows will be visiting Austin after a week’s break.

Glendale Raptors
Joining Austin in being winless after two matches are the Raptors. The Colorado club have lost 20-18 against the Seattle Seawolves and 40-31 against NOLA. Glendale now have a timely bye week, giving them a breather to regroup and prepare for the trip to Round Rock to face the Elite in week 4. That fixture is now a must-win for both clubs.

Santiago Arata
Saturday’s victory over Canada was bitter-sweet for Uruguay’s star scrumhalf. Arata made a brilliant play early to create a try for Federico Favaro, but then a moment of madness saw him sent off in the 16th minute. It could spell the end of his tournament as the headlock and slam down of Canadian winger Andrew Coe will now see him in front of a judiciary with a suspension a certainty. The Houston SaberCats will be hoping it is on the lower end of the scale and the team may be forced to bring in another halfback with Connor Murphy the only other specialist on the roster.

Emiliano Boffelli
The Argentina star remains sidelined through injury, his place in the Super Rugby season opener against the Lions now unlikely. Fortunately for Los Jaguares wing and fullback are well covered. Also in doubt are props Javier Díaz and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro. With Santiago García Botta out of favor in late 2018 there may be a Super Rugby debut for Mayco Vivas at loosehead.

Carlin Isles
Isles was caught on camera spitting in the face of an opponent following the loss against New Zealand this past weekend. The ugly incident is very much what rugby authorities want to have entirely eliminated from the game. As a result the Massillon, Ohio, native was being talked about for all the wrong reasons on social media on Sunday.

Grandparent Eligibility
Regardless of one’s views on player eligibility laws, there is no denying that Scotland stand out well above all others when it comes to players qualifying via the grandparent rule. This is nothing new in itself but the roster for the Six Nations had nine players qualifying on such grounds. That is over half of the 17 men not born in Scotland who are on the current roster. Of the other five nations Wales has two such players while England, France, Ireland, and Italy all have none. In the ARC the USA matches Wales with two while the other five have none. The qualifying path benefits some at the expense of the majority. At RWC 2015 this was also the case with Scotland and Italy the major benefactors.