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

Rugby ATL
Atlanta’s brand new professional rugby team has now played its first game, and celebrated the occasion with victory. Rugby ATL defeated the NOLA Gold 34-33 in front of a strong crowd at Lupo Field estimated to be near 2,000 on Sunday afternoon. Having not taken the exhibition route of other franchises, the performance puts at ease concerns that ATL might be out of tune come the regular season. With 66 players taking the field in the 100 minute game, it was a positive event for both teams.

Dallas MLR
The proposal to built a 3,500 seat multi-purpose stadium at the historic Reverchon Park site in Dallas has been approved by City Council after the matter was re-tabled in Wednesday’s Council meeting. After failing in its initial attempt last month, the project headed by Donnie Nelson was passed by a landslide with 11 of 15 members in favor.

Major League Rugby community outreach
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the MLR preseason thus far is the significant improvement to community involvement from nearly every side. The Toronto Arrows hosted more than 300 kids for a fun day with the team on the weekend and have opened their training sessions to the public. Old Glory DC have created an online schedule incorporating all regional rugby with several open development sessions planned. The New England Free Jacks will play preseason matches against an ‘Independents’ side made up of local talent, with Rugby United New York set to do the same against an NYC Barbarians team. These are just some examples of a league-wide push to build connections in 2020.

Henrique Platais
Brazil’s top referee will be part of the rotation in Major League Rugby this season. The 32-year-old from Rio de Janeiro will be based in Atlanta and was in the middle of ATL’s match against NOLA on Sunday. It’s a positive step for Platais, who has already refereed test matches in the Americas Rugby Championship, and the league whose officiating has been a bone of contention in its first two seasons.

Vancouver Island Crimson Tide
The Tide have named a strong squad for their exhibition match against the Seattle Seawolves this coming Thursday. Canadian internationals Kainoa Lloyd and Josh Thiel are included along with a handful of Pacific Pride standouts. Meanwhile three new backs are set to get a run for the Seawolves. Our only complaint is that there is currently no plan to stream the game at Starfire Stadium!

Olímpia Lions
Paraguay’s first professional rugby team, the Olímpia Lions begin their pre-season training today. They do so with their full roster having been made official with impressive names to have played test matches for Argentina, Fiji, and Namibia. The biggest addition is former Fiji and Clermont Auvergne star Napolioni Nalaga. Their home venue will be the national stadium – the Estadio Héroes de Curupayty – that is now in the process of getting a new playing surface.

Germán Kessler
Uruguay’s RWC starting hooker, Kessler made an instant impact in France. On debut for Charente, Kessler was a try scorer against Pro D2 leaders, Perpignan. Charente fell to a 23-20 defeat which sees them sitting at the middle of the table in 8th position.

Eric Fry, Nick Civetta
Also scoring in the Pro D2 this past week was Eric Fry. The veteran USA Eagles prop crossed in the 59th minute for Vannes who completed an upset away win over Mont-de-Marsan. Fry was joined by fellow RWC 2019 Eagle Nick Civetta in the Vannes lineup. Involved for the home side were the Argentine duo of prop Carlos Muzzio and center Juan Cappiello.

Santiago Cordero
A strong performance from Santiago Cordero helped Bordeaux win this past weekend. Their 32-17 victory over Edinburgh came with a try to Cordero. The win continues the team’s impressive campaign in the European Challenge Cup. Also in winning, Bordeaux secured a place in the Quarter Finals.

Juan Imhoff
Racing 92 defeated Munster on Sunday to book a spot in the European Champions Cup Quarter Finals. The team did so with a bonus point victory. Among the try scorers was Juan Imhoff, who scored his 27th try which takes him to 7th in the all-time list of try scorers in the competition. It also makes him the players with the second best ever strike rate. A test recall for 2020 may yet be possible. Imhoff’s last cap was at RWC 2015.

Matt Tierney
At 23 years old the Canadian prop already has 22 test caps but before this season had yet to make his mark in European rugby. That looks to be changing as he now has Five matches and three starts since joining Castres after the World Cup. On Saturday Tierney played 65 minutes in the blowout win over the Dragons. This is more impressive given he was playing loosehead prop for the first time in a competitive match, a fact that will be of interest to Canadian selectors given the lack of depth at the No1 position.

USA Sevens
The Eagles Sevens program was given a boost his week with confirmation that two World Cup participants have joined up with the residency program at Chula Vista. Malon Al-Jiboori has committed fully to making the Olympics while Mike Te’o will split his time between the World Sevens Series and San Diego Legion. This week’s USA Falcons trip to Fiji will also give opportunities to MLR talent Gavan D’Amore-Morrison and Malacchi Esdale.

 

UNDER

Canadian Free Agents
A number of Canada’s RWC roster remain free agents. Dustin Dobravsky, Gordon McRorie, and Nick Blevins do not appear headed towards professional deals; Luke Campbell and Kainoa Lloyd are no longer with the Toronto Arrows; and most notably the starting World Cup flyhalf Peter Nelson, formerly of Ulster, is currently out of contract.

Corinthians
There are still no updates about the player roster, match venue, coaching staff, or training sessions of Corinthians. The Brazilian SLAR team also happens to have a team name that is hated for it not being neutral for Brazilians. If there were a prize for the worst team launch in professional rugby then it would be hard to not give it to Corinthians.

AJ MacGinty
The Eagles flyhalf went off injured in the first half of Saturday’s Champions Cup game between Sale Sharks and La Rochelle. MacGinty suffered a dislocated shoulder which will see him miss much of the domestic season. With a rough timetable given of 3-4 months, he could well be on ice until July’s international window.

Major League Rugby communications
While there has been lots of social media push for the community work, the same can’t be said for the actual rugby! Some teams have been slow to announce player signings and the preseason games in many cases were confirmed far too late. There was relatively little hype for ATL’s first ever game and at the time of writing, nearly 24 hours after its completion, there has been no match report on either ATL or NOLA’s site with the only picture of the event coming from the MLR twitter page. The league – and teams – simply must improve their communications on the rugby front.