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

Cayman Islands
A magnificent performance from the Cayman Islands on Saturday saw them qualifying for the 2019 Americas Rugby Challenge. Their 58-14 victory over Guyana means that they are to play international rugby outside of the Caribbean for the first time in history. The Caymans will join Colombia, Mexico, and Paraguay in this year’s tournament.

Argentina XV
In their best performance in a long time the Argentina XV swept past the USA on Saturday. The comprehensive victory means the Argentina XV are well placed to win this year’s Americas Rugby Championship. With their remaining matches against Canada, Chile, and Uruguay an historic Grand Slam must clearly now be the objective.

Brazil
A tidy 18-10 victory by Brazil over Canada sees the script for the ARC torn up. Brazil can now target a finishing place no lower than 4th. They still have a home match to come against Chile and will be confident of performing away to Uruguay. Brazil’s win was also a reminder of why a 24-team World Cup is being talked about more seriously.

Uruguay
Far from playing their best rugby, Uruguay were 20-5 winners over Chile on Friday. In years gone by such a win would have been more than satisfactory. Times are different now with Uruguay having far more test matches and being a RWC competitor. Chile played good rugby while Los Teros were just above a pass mark. Both teams very much need the bye round this coming weekend.

Toronto Arrows
History was made this past weekend as the Arrows claimed their first Major League Rugby victory. It’s an important mark in the history of Canadian rugby and the feat was particularly notable as the Arrows were absent nearly a dozen players who were on international duty or unavailable. Stand-in captain Dan Moor led by example and was appropriately the man to score the winning try late in the match. Next up it’s a trip to Seattle this coming weekend.

San Diego Legion
The Legion were narrow winners over the SaberCats on Saturday. Their 17-13 victory at Torero Stadium was secured by a Nate Augspurger try with just two minutes remaining. The result sees San Diego moving clear into second spot. They will play at home again this weekend against the Utah Warriors.

New England Free Jacks
The Boston-based outfit are set to join MLR in 2020 but in the meantime have confirmed eight exhibition fixtures, the first of which took place this past weekend against the Utah Warriors. It’s an impressive list that includes the Cara Cup, a tournament that will feature development sides from all four of Ireland’s Guinness Pro franchises. Life won’t be easy for expansion sides next season but the Free Jacks are preparing as best as they possibly can.

Old Glory DC
Washington DC’s future MLR franchise now has a name and a shiny new logo. The new team, who will officially join the league in the 2020 season, will be called ‘Old Glory DC’ with their new logo featuring a shield design with a silhouette of the Capitol Building and a stylized US flag. It is further good news for sustainability and professionalism in North America.

USA Women’s Eagles
After a year of stagnation following the 2017 World Cup, the Women’s Eagles now have an established calendar to carry them through to 2021. It’s a much-needed change of routine and now gives the players and coach Rob Cain an opportunity to focus on performance rather than wondering what’s on the menu from month to month.

Santiago Carreras, Julián Domínguez
Outside backs Carreras and Dominguez had strong performances for the Argentina XV. Both players were try scorers and both were able to also assist in tries scored by teammates. Their names are two to underline for future involvement in Super Rugby. Carreras has already trained with Jaguares this year and may yet get game time under Gonzalo Quesada in 2019.

Manuel Leindekar
The towering Uruguayan lock started his fourth game of the season for Oyonnax on Thursday, playing against countryman Agustin Ormaechea and Mont-de-Marsan. Leindekar was a physical presence throughout the 80 minutes and was named in the Pro D2 Team of the Week by Midi Olympique. At just 21 years old he is poised to play in his first World Cup later this year and has a bright future as a professional ahead of him.

 

UNDER

Santiago Arata
Arata’s dangerous tackle on Canada winger Andrew Coe has earned him a spell on the sidelines. Uruguay’s leading scrumhalf was red-carded in the 16th minute of the match and has now been suspended for three weeks. While some consider the length of the sanction light, it should be noted that his prior record was good and he had already effectively served one game given the early time of the card. Both Uruguay and his club side Houston await his return anxiously.

Paul Lasike
Set to join Arata on the suspended list is Lasike. The Eagles midfielder was sent off for stomping in Saturday’s match against the Argentina XV. It was an ugly incident with Lasike retaliating against Matías Osadczuk who was holding his ankle. While a yellow card against Osadczuk may have been appropriate, Lasike’s overreaction could cost him the remainder of the tournament or game time with Harlequins.

USA Men’s Eagles
The Men’s Eagles were badly beaten in Patagonia by the Argentina XV. The reigning ARC champions conceded two early scored to be 14-0 down after just 8 minutes. A third would follow before the USA lost Lasike. The Grand Slam dream is now over for the Eagles who now require another country to defeat the Argentina XV if they are to have any chance of continuing as champions.

Canada
The Canadians suffered an embarrassing defeat against Brazil on Saturday. Video of their humiliating scrum performance has been making the rounds on social media and they were little better in general play. Adding injury to insult was a potentially long-term knee injury suffered by No8 Luke Campbell. Other players may also soon find themselves on the sidelines as a few may have seen their tickets to Japan run through the shredder. The loss drops Canada to 21st in the World Rugby Rankings.

Guyana
The Green Machine were taken apart by the Cayman Islands. The result will cost Guyana significant investment, a lower scale version to what Canada faced had it missed out on qualifying for RWC 2019. Guyana is to play next in the Rugby Americas North Championship and needs to improve quickly or it will not return to the Americas Rugby Challenge in 2020.

Rodrigo Capó Ortega
Out of rugby for two or three months is Capó Ortega. The Castres captain is expected back for the final stages of the regular Top 14 season. Now aged 38, Capó Ortega is chasing the dream of playing in a second RWC. Remarkably his first was in Australia in 2003. Should he play in Japan 2019 he would set a world record for longest break between World Cup appearances.

Marcos Kremer
Los Jaguares are set to confirm the non-availability of Marcos Kremer to open the Super Rugby season. The team’s starting blindside flanker suffered a knock to his knee on Friday in a training match against Los Pumitas. In his absence Rodrigo Bruni is the leading contender to be his cover in the season opener against the Lions on Saturday.

DTH van der Merwe
Canada’s World Cup preparations have been given a scare. van der Merwe has been ruled out of rugby for the remainder of the Guinness Pro 14 season. This puts his involvement with Canada against in the Pacific Nations Cup in doubt. van der Merwe has undergone shoulder surgery and is now in a race in time to be fit for the World Cup warm-up matches.

Santiago García Botta
For year’s one and two of Los Jaguares García Botta was officially the second choice loosehead prop. Ahead of him was Lucas Noguera Paz who departed for Bath before the 2018 season. The opportunity has not worked out for García Botta. He lost his spot for Los Pumas in late 2018 and is now out of favor under the new coaching regime at Jaguares. Rookie Mayco Vivas is favored to start against the Lions.

Austin Elite
A 23-19 home defeat sees Austin remaining winless in the 2019 MLR season. The club has played 3 matches, all at home, and has won none of them. The Elite face Glendale this coming weekend and need to act to salvage something from their five-game home stand.

SANZAAR Referees
The referee panel for the 2019 Super Rugby season features 15 names including two newcomers, but only one referee from a nation outside the traditional super powers. Federico Anselmi is the lone representative of Argentina with none selected from Japan. While appointments should be merit-based, it’s clear that those from smaller nations are not given the same opportunities to progress as others.