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

Juan Imhoff
Argentina have recalled Juan Imhoff for the Rugby Championship. The Racing 92 winger was last capped by Argentina at RWC 2015. His only appearances for his country since then have been in Rugby 7’s. He represented Argentina at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Imhoff’s non-selection from 2015-2019 was not about rugby quality; he was left out due to politics. The UAR prioritized Jaguares throughout these years. Only on a rare occasion did any player based abroad receive a cap from 2015-2019.

Pumas Wingers
Juan Imhoff is one of three Top14 wingers on Argentina’s roster for the Rugby Championship. The others are Santiago Cordero, and Ramiro Moyano. They are joined by four Jaguares players, two of whom are categorized also as fullbacks. The four are Emiliano Boffelli, Sebastián Cancelliere, Santiago Carreras, and Bautista Delguy. There is speed to burn. There are more options. One is Axel Muller who was a try scorer for Brive on Friday.

Argentina’s 14 uncapped players for Rugby Championship
Has Michael Cheika’s appointment brought about an immediate impact? That is to say, has the Australian influenced selections? Did he tell Mario Ledesma and company to pick the likes of Imhoff, Cordero and Facundo Isa? These questions will all be answered over time. Meanwhile, there are 14 newcomers in a roster of 45 players. They highlight the cleaning-out post RWC 2019 as much as how much the one-team policy benefited some players and held back the development of others. Of the newcomers Federico Wegrzyn, José Luis González, Ignacio Calás, Rodrigo Fernández Criado, Juan Martín González, Joaquín Oviedo, and Lucio Cinti have not played Super Rugby.

Olivia DeMerchant
Canada’s prop star has signed for Exeter Chiefs of the Premier 15s. DeMerchant follows three US Eagles to one of the top clubs in England. It’s an ideal placement for one of the country’s key players heading towards RWC 2021. With Québec already sending many of their top players to France, Canada coach Sandro Fiorini will be hoping more players make the move to Europe in the coming weeks.

Utah Warriors
The Warriors have unveiled plans to construct a new stadium in time for the 2023 Major League Rugby season. When completed it would be the third purpose-built rugby facility in the USA following Infinity Park in Glendale and Houston’s new AVEVA Stadium. The new project will have a capacity double that of Zions Bank Stadium at 10,000.

MLR Signings
Finally a big week of signings to talk about. RUNY were on fire with confirmations that Kara Pryor and Evan Mintern have received visa clearance to play in 2021, while top Canadian prospect Quinn Ngawati has signed on. San Diego grabbed two classy South Africans in Bjorn Basson and Cecil Afrika, but at the same time said goodbye to another as NOLA stole JP du Plessis in a trade. New England snapped up ex-Raptors halfback Sean Yacoubian and Dallas snared rising Fijian talent John Vasurakuta.

World Tens Series
JP Doyle has accepted an invitation to referee at the World Tens Series slated to take place in Bermuda next month. The 41-year-old has been one of the leading referees in Europe for the last decade and took charge of the 2014 English Premiership Final. He was on the match official panel at Rugby World Cup 2015, refereeing the Pool C match between Argentina and Georgia.

Lobos
Punta del Este side Lobos upset PSG. Lobos claims their first win of the season, downing Pucaru Stade Gaulois (PSG) 32-26 in Montevideo. The teams have seven and six competition points respectively in the Uruguayo de Clubes. Six rounds have thus far been completed. Trébol are the leaders with 26 points. They are followed by MVCC with 25, and Carrasco Polo and Old Christians with 24 each. Carrasco Polo were 10-8 away winners this past weekend over MVCC.

 

UNDER

RWC 2023 Draw
The draw for France 2023 will take place this year. It will be done with the 12 pre-qualified teams seeded based on the world rankings from January 1, 2020.  The announcement included justification, noting that “it was the fairest and most transparent option. With significant disruption to the international calendar in 2020 and Japan not having the ability to play, it was the least-worst option.” We simply cannot agree with that explanation.

World Rugby’s Questionable Decisions
World Rugby’s staff like to pat themselves on the back. Any reader of the press releases will agree that the entity is big on progressive values. Integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect are noted as the character-building characteristics of rugby. The 2017 decision to change from 36-month residency to 60 months was recently delayed by 12 months. At the same time there was inexplicably no delay made to the draw for RWC 2023. These two outcomes are not consistent.

Super Rugby
South Africa’s four existing Super Rugby franchises will leave the competition. SA Rugby confirmed that the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers will transition to an expanded Pro 14. The four Super Rugby teams will take part while the Cheetahs and Southern Kings exit the league. Los Jaguares will not be joining the Pro 14 and nor will the team compete in the Currie Cup. ARN cannot foresee any professional competition in 2021 outside of South America. Thus, will Los Jaguares join the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR)?

Tomás Lavanini, Matías Moroni
Pumas Tomás Lavanini and Matías Moroni are injured. Both players were ruled out of the Rugby Championship this past week. The former will undergo surgery on an ankle injury. He will be fit again to play in December. The latter will not require surgery, though will not be fit in time to be considered for the competition. Moroni’s next match will be in the UK. He is to join Lavanini at the Leicester Tigers.

Javier Ortega Desio
Ortega Desio was drafted into the Argentina XV. He will compete in the South American 4 Nations against Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. He was Argentina’s starting N08 at RWC 2019. A notable change for the 2020 Rugby Championship comes at N08. Facundo Isa was named on the roster. Ortega Desio was not. Assistant Coach Nicolás Fernández Miranda has explained the decision, saying that Ortega Desio did not play well in 2019. The 57-cap veteran now faces an uphill challenge to return to Los Pumas.