Up and Under

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

 

UP

2021 Súper Liga Americana de Rugby
The second edition of the Súper Liga American de Rugby (SLAR) will have more teams than the first. The 2021 season will feature six teams. The one team per country league set Los Cafeteros Pro joining to give Colombia its first professional rugby team. An official announcement is forthcoming for the identity of all teams.

SLAR DRAFT
Los Jaguares do not have a competition; at least they do not for the first half of 2021. What then to do with the players? From March to May the answer is SLAR. Plans are being finalized for a player draft. This will see all six teams able to draft players to boost their rosters for the 2021 season. This is a win-win for all involved. Peñarol, for instance, could draft a player such as Francisco Gorrissen or Javier Ortega Desio to improve their lineout. Following the SLAR season the Jaguars players will return to Buenos Aires and possibly play in another professional competition in the second half of 2021.

Los Cafeteros Pro, Olímpia Lions
Teams from Colombia and Paraguay are to have priority in the 2021 SLAR draft. Los Cafeteros Pro (Colombia) and the Olímpia Lions (Paraguay) will have 15 national players and 15 Argentine players in their respective 30-man rosters. This is welcome news for supporters seeking a level playing field in the 2021 SLAR competition. The limited matches in 2020 demonstrated that Selknam and Peñarol were superior to the tams from Brazil and Paraguay. The Argentine side (Ceibos) was a cut above the rest.

MLR Signings
The expansion LA Giltinis continue to pick up notable names. This past week saw Angus Cottrell, Luca Tani, Luke Carty and Sione Tu’ihalamaka signing. The San Diego Legion signed Super Rugby players Cameron Clark and Santiago González Iglesias. Another Super Rugby player, Sef Fa’agase joined New England. Seattle re-signed Suliasi Tamaivena and FP Pelser. Austin recruited Maclean Jones and Sidney Shoop, and the Utah Warriors signed Olive Kilifi. Finally, Houston re-signed Uruguay’s Diego Magno and Namibian Adriaan Booysen.

Mexico
Mexico is eyeing a future in Major League Rugby. Plans for the coming decade include a Mexican team in the USA-based competition. Such a move would see Mexico joining professional rugby for the first time and see the MLR expanded to a third North American country. Mexico’s men’s national team, compete annually in the Rugby Americas North championship. They qualified for the Americas Rugby Challenge in both 2018 and 2019, finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively, and are currently ranked 43rd in the world and 8th in the Americas.

Argentina
Argentina received a favorable draw for RWC 2023. Los Pumas avoided Australia, Ireland and hosts, France in Band 2. This saw Argentina pooled together with Japan. It was the outcome that Argentina wanted. This is not to underestimate the Japanese; improvement is well-documented. Yet, it was the preferred team from the four possibilities. Band 1 will be tough, though facing England was slightly preferred when compared to New Zealand or South Africa.

Americas 1
The RWC 2023 draw also benefits Americas 1. The qualifier will have a friendlier set of opponents than Americas 2. Americas 1 will receive a favorable Band 3 opponent in Italy and the prized Band 5 opponent, Africa 1. These two matches can be targeted as winnable. The same cannot be said of the Band 1 and 2 teams. Planning for the matches against France and New Zealand will most likely be of secondary importance compared to targeting wins against Italy and Africa 1 (likely Namibia).

Santiago Cordero
Pumas winger Santiago Cordero scored a hat-trick on Saturday. He touched down for three of Bordeaux’s seven tries in a bonus point win over the Dragons. The win sees the French side well placed in the 2020-2021 European Champions Cup. Cordero had a busy match. In addition to his there tries he also mad two clean breaks and carried 126 meters.

North Americans in Premier 15s
Every week without fail North America’s finest impress in the Premier 15s. This past weekend saw Canada’s McKinley Hunt grabbing another try for Exeter in the big win over Durham Sharks. Also joining the scoring sheet were Eagles pair Kate Zackary and Gabby Cantorna, the former with a try and the latter adding four conversions. Five Canadians were in London with Sophie de Goede’s try-scoring effort helping Saracens to a close win over Loughborough.

 

UNDER

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay
The South American RWC 2023 qualifying tournaments will be played exclusively in Montevideo, Uruguay. This means that Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay will not have any home matches. Two of them will join Uruguay in round two in the round two tournament in July 2021. It will follow the round one tournament featuring Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Paraguay. Getting through to round two will be a challenge; defeating Uruguay in round two will be an even greater one.

Americas 2
The RWC 2023 draw did not give the Americas 2 qualifier the greatest pool. Americas 2 will face England, Japan, Argentina, and Oceania 1 (possibly Tonga) in Pool D. The group will be highly demanding, more so than that of Americas 1. However, it is not all bad news. If Uruguay qualify as Americas 2 then there would b an historic RWC match-up between two South American teams.

Australia, Fiji, Georgia, Wales
Lightning has struck more than twice. Fiji and Wales are again in the same RWC pool. This fixture has repeated itself too often; specifically at all RWCs from 2007-2023. To add to the boring factor is the Wallabies. Australia were in the same pool as Fiji and Wales at RWCs 2007, 2015, 2019, and 2023. But what there is more; Georgia are back too. Yes, Georgia was in the pool with these three teams at RWC 2019. If Uruguay miss out on Americas 1 and Americas 2 but enter the Repechage and win, then the pool will be identical to that from Japan 2019.

Jaguares
Los Jaguares still do not have a confirmed future for 2021. The Argentine Super Rugby franchise will not play Super Rugby, nor will it play in SLAR. Will the team have a competition to play in? According to UAR Vice President Gabriel Travaglini the team has not disappeared. The UAR is working on finding a solution for the team in 2021.

#FiestaRCH – Gabriel Travaglini: “Jaguares no desapareció, estamos buscando un lugar donde se pueda desarrollar la franquicia”.

— Rugby Champagne (@rugbych) December 16, 2020

European Champions Cup
This past weekend saw multiple matches cancelled. In some cases they were cancelled very late. Scarlets vs Toulon was called-off an hour before kick-off. Ramiro Moyano and Facundo Isa had been set to start. Instead, the team was on a plane home after it was revealed that a Scarlets player had tested positive for COVID-19. The officials had not called-off the game or isolated the player, so Toulon unilaterally acted.