Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
With the Americas Rugby Championship having concluded all eyes in North America return to Major League Rugby. Yet with the competition involving no shortage of South American players there is great interest from below the Panama Canal. Week 8 of the MLR is to reflect this with Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay all represented.
Week 8 will begin today in Brooklyn, New York. RU New York are at home against the Toronto Arrows in the club’s first MLR home match. Starting the match for the visitors on the right wing will be Gastón Mieres. The Uruguayan was among the best performing fullbacks in the ARC this year.
In search of their maiden win of the season the Austin Elite have a tough assignment against the Seattle Seawolves. The Texans go into the game with Uruguay’s regular starting fullback, Rodrigo Silva at fly half. Juan Echeverría also starts, doing so at tight head prop. Among the replacements will be Chilean scrum-half Marcelo Torrealba.
Also of note is that Austin added another South American to their roster this week with the signing of Argentine center JP Aguirre. He will make his debut outside of Silva to form an Uruguayan-Argentine 10-12 combination. Starting at fly half for Seattle will be the Argentine-born Eagle Ben Cima.
Also in Texas the Houston SaberCats play host to NOLA Gold. The table-toppling visitors have named Uruguayan enforcer Ignacio Dotti to start in the second-row. The SaberCats line-up is packed with Dotti’s countrymen. Scrum-half sees Santiago Arata starting while Diego Magno and Alejandro Nieto will play lock and No8 respectively.
Having a bye this weekend are the Utah Warriors. The club made a signing earlier this week of Brazilian flanker Arthur Bergo. He joins fellow Brazilian representative Josh Reeves at the Warriors. ARN can confirm there are additional Brazilians currently being considered by MLR teams.
