Up and Under

Up and Under is a weekly feature on Americas Rugby News which reviews the best and worst from games involving the Americas teams over the previous week.

 

UP

Americas Rugby Championship, Americas Rugby Challenge
The Americas Rugby Championship is to introduce the system of promotion / relegation. It will be added for the 2020 ARC, the next edition of the annual rugby competition. Since its inception in 2016 the same six competitors have featured every year – Argentina XV, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Uruguay, and the USA. The Americas Rugby Challenge began in 2018 and this year will involve the Cayman Islands, Colombia, Mexico, and Paraguay.

Women’s Sevens Series
More good news came this week with confirmation that the Women’s Sevens Series will expand to eight stops in the 2019-2020 season. Six events will be feature both the men and women, with only two stops leaving the women on their own – notably the Canada and USA legs. It’s one step closer to the ultimate goal – complete parity between the two divisions.

Jaguares XV
Los Jaguares XV scored over 100 points in a massive win on Saturday against Valke. The Argentine side converted a 68-0 half-time lead into a 122-19 victory. With no promotion to the Premier Division of the Currie Cup results like this only point to the insanity of South Africa Rugby to not have such a structure in place. Domingo Miotti converted 17 tries in the match while Agustín Segura scored four of what was a total of eighteen tries.

Houston SaberCats
The Houston SaberCats have secured the services of a highly reputable new Director of Rugby. Paul Healy will take over the role as well as that of Head Coach for the 2020 Major League Rugby season, replacing departed Justin Fitzpatrick while Paul Emerick acted as Interim Head Coach to close the season. He will remain on staff as an Assistant Coach. Healy has previous coaching experience the world over in places including Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Uruguay, and Wales.

Santiago Carreras, Bautista Delguy
Promoted from Los Jaguares XV to Los Pumas on Sunday were Santiago Carreras, and Bautista Delguy. The former is uncapped while the latter has been undergoing rehabilitation from an ankle injury suffered in March. Both are now set to have opportunities to press for RWC selection. They join Sebastián Cancelliere, and Ramiro Moyano as wing options to face South Africa on Saturday. No specialist outside centers have been included with Joaquín Tuculet instead set for a new role.

 

UNDER

Argentina
The Springboks ran rampant to down Argentina 46-13 and win the Rugby Championship on Saturday. Los Pumas were poor as their attack was unable to produce results with a lack of penetration being a theme for the duration. The scrum also suffered tremendously, although Juan Figallo has argued that South Africa were pushing early, something not picked-up by the match officials.

Canada
Like Argentina, Canada ended a tournament winless. The Canadians were beaten 33-23 on Friday by Tonga in Lautoka, Fiji. The North Americans did not start well and would find themselves 20 points behind before two late tries saw their tally a more respectable number. The Tongan forwards were dominant with Canada again leaving it too late to play expansive rugby.

USA
A slow start by the USA saw them quickly trailing Japan by 17 points. The Eagles would improve to win the remainder of the match but would ultimately lose 34-20. The fixture was the last match this month for the USA with their one remaining pre-RWC fixture being against Canada in Vancouver on September 7.

Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands played a warm-up match for the Americas Rugby Challenge on Saturday, doing so against the USA South Panthers. The Caribbean nation were beaten 51-33, with the Panthers being deserved winners. The Cayman Islands now have under two weeks to prepare for the ARCh where they will make their debut on Sunday, August 25 against hosts Colombia.