Up and Under

Up and Under is usually a weekly segment on Americas Rugby News. It has been on hold since March 16 because of COVID-19. Up and Under makes a return today thanks to the large number of off-field activities during the past week.

UP

Sebastián Piñeyrua
Sudamérica Rugby President Sebastián Piñeyrua slammed World Rugby’s decision to delay changing the residency law by one year. Piñeyrua was less than satisfied with the governance of the Beaumont regime. He noted the authorities made the change to appease those upset, them being established Tier 1 unions. The law change was designed to level out the playing field as the majority of Tier 1 unions captured players and nationalized them. Uruguay, Georgia and Russia faced such teams at RWC 2019, yet the trio all played with 100% home produced player rosters.

English Premiership return
After a four-month hiatus no thanks to COVID-19, the English Premiership returned to action this past weekend. Harlequins, Gloucester, Exeter, Bath, Bristol, and Wasps were winners as a few Americas players took to the field. Notable was the Saracens debut of Juan Pablo Socino. New teammate Will Hooley was a late call-up to the bench but did not play, while Kapeli Pifeleti should feature in the next week after recently being promoted to the senior squad.

Martín Landajo
The former Pumas scrumhalf put in a man-of-the-match performance on Friday. Landajo combined superbly with flyhalf Marcus Smith as Harlequins were 16-10 winners over the Sale Sharks on Friday. With further showings of this kind the 32-year-old could force his way back into Ledesma’s plans. Also featuring in the second half of the match for Quins was Santiago García Botta. AJ MacGinty kicked three points as a replacement for visiting Sale.

Castres Olympique
Uruguay scrumhalf Santiago Arata and Canada captain Tyler Ardron, starting at lock, made their club debuts for Castres on Friday. The pair joined Canadian prop Matt Tierney and Pumas flyhalf Benjamín Urdapilleta in the lineup for the preseason match against Agen. While not entirely convincing, Castres were 7-5 winners on the road. Warm-up matches will continue next weekend with Castres facing Montauban. The Top 14 itself is scheduled to begin on September 4.

Guido Petti
On debut in France, Petti showed his lineout excellence. He was impressive in the air for Bordeaux who took on Biarritz in a preseason match. In an encouraging sign for his new team the former Jaguares second-rower replicated his form from earlier in the year. Petti was joined by Santiago Cordero in Friday’s match. They were 48-12 winners over Pro D2 side Biarritz, who featured Canada’s Evan Olmstead at lock in the first half.

Shane O’Leary
The Canadian international flyhalf looks set to play a leading role for Rouen Normandie in their Pro D2 campaign. O’Leary made his club debut in the No10 shirt and kicked eight points in the 25-12 preseason win over Vannes on the weekend. It remains to be seen if he can force his way back into Canada’s lineup with coach Kingsley Jones largely ignoring O’Leary despite strong club form.

South American players to Spain
The Spanish División de Honor has long been a popular destination for South American players, with obvious connections in language and culture and for many departures familial links. The most recent moves see a pair of Argentines signing for Bathco. Former Pumitas prop Felipe Helman and versatile halfback Julián Izaguirre will move to the Santander-based club. Chilean lock Augusto Sarmiento will switch clubs, moving from Cisneros to Aparejadores.

Major League Rugby signings
A steady stream of off-season activity has being coming from MLR clubs. This past week saw 11 players confirmed for the 2021 season. New signings included Samoa prop Zak Taulafo to RUNY, England age-grade center Harry Barlow to the Free Jacks, and former Scotland u20 hooker James Malcolm to Dallas.

Houston SaberCats academy
The new SaberCats academy side – Rugby HTX – held a combine at AVEVA Stadium on Saturday with more than 70 hopefuls taking part. Receiving an invite after the event were 14 participants, who will have a strong group of coaches to learn from. The confirmed staff includes Paul Emerick, Taylor Howden, Brett Mills, and Josh Schnell, with Grant Cole named Team Manager.

UNDER

World Rugby Player Eligibility
World Rugby have controversially extended the amendment of Regulation 8 regarding eligibility by residency. It was changed from three years to five in 2017 by council vote, and was to be implemented on January 1, 2021. This past week it emerged that in July the amendment was moved one year ahead by the Executive Committee to January 1, 2022. It should be noted that many Tier 1 nations who are set to benefit will in fact have opportunities to cap players before the originally intended cut-off date. The USA could benefit as a result but for the most part Americas nations will gain nothing from the delay.

World Rugby u20s
Further negative press may be forthcoming for World Rugby. It has emerged that the 2021 Junior World Championship is under threat of being called off. The 2020 competition was due to take place in Italy in June and July. Also canceled was the World Rugby Junior World Trophy. That event was to be played in Spain this coming September.

Super Rugby 2021
The 2021 Super Rugby season has been suspended. That is to say that the intended competition will be replaced by something very different. For Los Jaguares the end result remains unknown. Will the Argentine franchise play in Australia? Will it do so in South Africa? Both possibilities have been tabled, though both bring with them massive financial losses and neither would involve home matches.

Juan Imhoff
Los Pumas returned to training on Thursday. The Argentine based players are now looking to respond to five months off while getting in shape for the Rugby Championship. There will be a mixture of home-based and European-based talent on the roster for the tournament. Missing will be Racing 92’s Juan Imhoff. The star winger remains outside of Mario Ledesma’s plans. It is hard to understand given that the Jaguares-only policy has been buried. Imhoff has the second best strike rate in European Champions Cup history and is the only player to score a test hat-trick against South Africa.