Up and Under

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

 

UP

Canada Sevens
It’s been a while since Canada’s men have been in the ‘Up’ column but it is thoroughly deserved this week. They played their best rugby in some time at Hamilton, but despite finishing the tournament unbeaten had to settle for 5th place because of the highly controversial new format. For the women, it was business as usual. Another Cup Final appearance though New Zealand continue to have their number.

Britt Benn & Kayla Moleschi
The two Canadians were rewarded for their excellent form in Hamilton with selection to the official HSBC Dream Team. It’s the third consecutive tournament selection for Benn, who was named to last year’s end-of-season selects. Canada captain and top scorer Ghislaine Landry was unlucky to be left out while Alev Kelter was in top form for the USA.

Canada vs Italy
Canada will play host to Italy in Halifax on the July 11 weekend. The fixture is the second match set for the summer international windows and ensures a Tier 1 opponent for Canada. It is a very important fixture, likely the most challenging of the year. Being able to host such a fixture indicates Canada’s strong standing with World Rugby.

Major League Rugby TV Partners
Major League Rugby will be broadcast on three national television networks in the USA this season. Having seen positive numbers on CBS Sports Network in each of its first two seasons, the league will add weekly matches on Fox Sports 2 and ESPN News for 2020.

Seattle Seawolves Fans
Huge credit goes to the Seattle Seawolves Fans group who put together a last-minute stream of the Tasman game on Sunday night. Special shout outs to Matt and Mason Alexander for supplying and working the hardware, and David Bruck for his impromptu play-by-play. Despite having virtually zero notice there were hundreds tuned in live and at the time of writing there has been more than 7,000 views of the video. Seawolves Fans already set the standard in MLR. On Sunday they raised the bar even higher.

MLR Roster Reinforcements
Some late arrivals have begun to boost MLR sides with just a couple weeks to go before the regular season. International loose forwards Andrew Durutalo and Adriaan Booysen have joined Seattle and Houston respectively. Meanwhile there is further help on the way for the SaberCats with Argentine front rowers Nicolás Solveyra and Diego Fortuny finally arriving after a visa delay, while Julián Domínguez has touched down in New Orleans. Juan Manuel Leguizamón is still waiting for clearance to join Durutalo at the Seawolves.

Jaguares
Los Jaguares completed their Super Rugby warm-ups with a second comfortable win over the Georgia XV. Many new players took opportunities as did fringe players, with 20-year-old center Santiago Chocobares particularly impressive. The combined recipe is good news for the 2020 campaign and also for new talent to emerge for Los Pumas this year.

Gabriel Ascárate
Former Puma, Gabriel Ascárate has been named captain of the Olímpia Lions. He is one of the senior players in the squad and assured of his place in the starting XV. He won 18 caps for Argentina between 2007 and 2016 and has professional experience with Carcassonne and Glasgow Warriors. Ascárate was part of the inaugural Jaguares squad in 2016 but did not make a regular season appearance.

Andrés Zafra
With Andrés Zafra in the starting line-up, Agen were 23-22 winners got over Bayonne. The Colombian wore the number 4 shirt as he packed down in the second-row. Argentine prop Jerónimo Negrotto joined him in the the second half from the bench. The win is a massive boost from Agen who are in direct competition with Bayonne to avoid relegation.

Paul Lasike, Martín Landajo
The battle of London was won by the Harlequins. Their triumph over Saracens involved tries to both Paul Lasike and Martín Landajo. The win also sees the club edging further towards the play-off’s zone. Also playing for the winning side was Santiago García Botta, who lined Lasike in the run-on side.

 

UNDER

USA Men’s Sevens
Sixth place doesn’t sound that bad but it was the performance of the team that is cause for concern. Their opening half against Canada in the 5th-place playoff was arguably their worst of the season. Head coach Mike Friday was clear in his assessment: “We are deeply unhappy as these are not the standards or behaviors we want to be associated with.”

Brazil Women
In the case of Las Yaras the performance actually improved in Hamilton but they were still winless and finished last for the third time in four tournaments. Ireland now has an eight-point lead leaving Brazil with a mountain to climb in the second half of the season to avoid losing core status.

Corinthians
The news is still nothing but negative for Corintians and Brazilian rugby. There is still no official player roster nor any signatures to speak of. The staggering lack of organization means that the launch of the professional rugby team remains on hold. CBRu’s appalling financial situation is to blame.

Selknam
Who will be wearing the colors of Selknam in the SLAR? Known at this point in time are that the captain is Chilean back-rower Ignacio Silva with Argentine players Rodrigo Bruno, Ignacio Albornoz, and Patricio Baronio joining him. The rest are unconfirmed. Hopefully the roster can be finalized this week.

Matías Alemanno
The departure of Tomás Lavanini to the Leicester Tigers opened up a spot for Matías Alemanno to become a first choice second-rower at Los Jaguares. The new season, which starts later this week, will not involve the Córdoba giant. He has been ruled out of the match, joining Jerónimo de la Fuente on the sidelines. Gonzalo Quesada will likely field Marcos Kremer and Guido Petti in the second-row for the season opener.

English Premiership
The regrettable Saracens situation has ruined the 2019-2020 English premiership season as a contest. It is now comparable to the Pro 14 with no relegation. This removes one of the key areas of the competition – the fight to remain in the elite level of English rugby. It is also a slap in the face of teams to have been relegated in prior seasons.

Castres
The small-town French powerhouses, Castres are now facing relegation. A diabolical 27-0 home defeat against Racing 92 this past weekend sees the club just one point outside of the relegation zone. With one of the two sides in the relegation zone being Stade Français changes to the bottom two are expected. Castres will need to win home games and gain away points or be prepared to fight for survival.

Seawolves / MLR Broadcast Failure
Both the Seawolves and the league must share criticism for failing to produce a broadcast for the game between Seattle and Tasman. This was not an ordinary preseason game. Billed as ‘Champion vs Champion’, the quality of teams involved and play on the field demanded special consideration. Instead the two organizations failed to capitalize on an opportunity to share the brand with viewers across the globe, and showed a lack of respect to Tasman who traveled from New Zealand to play the game. On top of this not one of the other preseason games on the go was streamed. This was a bad look for MLR with its biggest season just two weeks away.