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

Bronze Medal for brilliant Pumas
Los Pumas made history at the Olympic Games, winning Argentina’s first medal of the Tokyo Olympics and the country’s first ever Olympic medal in rugby. The road to Bronze was rocky; Argentina looked down and out against South Africa. Gastón Revol was red carded early on, yet Argentina outperformed the Africans to eliminate them and advance to the Semi Finals. This occurred with Argentina down to five men. Many attribute the heroics to Ignacio Mendy and Marcos Moneta; however, this was the quintessential team effort. They dug deep and won medals.

Comprehensive LA Giltinis 
The LA Giltinis were crowned Major League Rugby champions on Sunday, defeating Rugby ATL 31-17 at the Memorial Coliseum. It was a comprehensive performance from the expansion side, who left their opponents frustrated and took advantage of nearly every scoring opportunity. After a runaway start to the campaign LA were proven imperfect on several occasions. On Sunday they produced arguably their best performance of the season at exactly the right time.

Major League Rugby
Faced with continuing uncertainty from the pandemic at the start of the season, Major League Rugby successfully completed all 99 games this season. The only blip was a 24-hour delay for one game on the opening weekend. It was an intensely competitive season that produced exciting playoff races and no shortage of unpredictable results. Highly promising attendance figures to close the campaign – not least the 7,500 reported for Sunday’s Final – point to increasing success as the league now begins preparation for their fifth season in 2022.

Brazil fall short at Olympics but end on a high
Brazil’s Women’s Sevens team, As Yaras, finished the Tokyo Olympics on a high. They were 21-12 winners over hosts Japan. The result gave them 11th place. While a modest victory, the performance was demonstrably the best by the Brazilians at the Olympic Games. They had been outclassed in earlier matches and Canada, Fiji and France. Top scorer Bianca Silva was a standout for the team throughout.

Uruguayan and Chilean eyes look to the north
October is just around the corner. That month will see Uruguay and Chile back on the field competing in RWC 2023 qualifiers. They will do so against North American opposition. They are awaiting the result of the North American series between Canada and the USA in September. Uruguay will face the winner of the North American home-and-away matches while Chile will take on the runner-up. Uruguay are South America 1 and Chile are South American 2. They will face North America 1 and North American 2 respectively. Dates are set for October 2 and 9.

Argentina go big for Rugby Championship
Mario Ledesma’s roster for the Rugby Championship is big. It contains 47 players, 26 of whom are forwards. The roster contains sizable players; this is a squad made with an eye to winning the collisions. Twelve players will have the opportunity of making their test debuts. They are Mateo Carreras, Lucio Cinti, Rodrigo Fernández Criado, Thomas Gallo, Santiago Mare, Rodrigo Martínez, Ignacio Mendy, Marcos Moneta, Carlos Muzzio, Joaquín Oviedo, Ignacio Ruiz and Joel Sclavi. All are professional players and many will press for places in the match-day 23.

Argentines in demand in United Rugby Championship
Argentines are in high demand in the Pro 14, or, now the United Rugby Championship. Scotland’s teams will have a record number of Pumas. Edinburgh signed Emiliano Boffelli and Ramiro Moyano last week. The Glasgow Warriors roster contains Sebastián Cancelliere, Domingo Miotti, and Enrique Pieretto. Welsh teams the Dragons and Scarlets are home to Gonzalo Bertranou and Tomás Lezana respectively. Italian side Benetton has seven Argentines: Tomás Albornoz, Tomás Baravalle, Juan Ignacio Brex, Thomas Gallo, Ivan Nemer, Joaquín Riera and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro. Finally, Zebre is home to Eduardo Bello.

UNDER

Jamie Cudmore
Rugby Canada relieved Jamie Cudmore of his duties as Head Coach of the Pacific Pride and Assistant Coach of the Senior Men’s XVs side. The decision followed social media comments by Cudmore, since deleted, that were aimed at members of the Women’s Sevens team. His outburst was indefensible and Rugby Canada were left with no option but to part ways with the former international. Cudmore has since apologized and says he is committed to personal reform.

Rugby Canada
The online explosion is just the latest controversy to sour Rugby Canada’s reputation. There remains deep division within the organization about the handling of the removal of John Tait as Head Coach of the Women’s Sevens side. Rugby Canada chose not to release the findings of the independent investigator, which effectively cleared Tait of wrongdoing. As a result questions continue to be asked of the complaint’s content. Further fire has been added by former captain Jen Kish who claims that senior players on the team are complicit in creating what has become a toxic environment. If confidence is to be restored in Rugby Canada’s leadership they must address the current situation.

Canada and USA fall short of medal contention
The Americas missed out on medals at the Women’s Sevens in Tokyo. The USA were excellent in pool play, winning their group. Notwithstanding, their medal hopes were shattered by Great Britain who ran out to a 21-nil lead in the third Quarter Final before conceding two tries to the Eagles. Canada’s disappointing pool run was capped by a dismal 31-nil defeat to France, with China’s dominant win over Japan enough to knock the Maple Leafs out of the medal rounds.

Cubelli hands Argentina a problem
Argentina have suffered an injury blow; Tomás Cubelli has been ruled out of the Rugby Championship. The 32-year-old suffered a hand injury in training at Biarritz. He will now require surgery and will be unable to compete for Los Pumas in the Rugby Championship. Cubelli was the starter a year ago only to be injured after the opening match. Gonzalo Bertranou and Felipe Ezcurra started in the three other matches. The focus is now on them for the upcoming tournament.

Pumas to play four tests without starting props
Argentina’s starting props will play in two of the six matches for Los Pumas in the Rugby Championship. Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro and Francisco Gómez Kodela will only travel to South Africa. They will both then return to their clubs. It leaves a void that will be faced during the competition itself. Argentina is somewhat prepared as Ledesma started Facundo Gigena and Enrique Pieretto against Romania in July.

Ledesma’s Missing Names
Argentina’s Rugby Championship roster is mammoth yet there are eleven names missing from the 2020 tournament. They are forwards José Luis González, Ignacio Calles, Ignacio Calas, Lucio Sordoni, Mayco Vivas, Federico Wegrzyn, Santiago Grondona and backs Tomás Albornoz, Juan Imhoff, Lucas Mensa and Ramiro Moyano. Some players are sidelined with injuries, others were wider roster options who have recently joined teams abroad and some are simply out of favor. Juan Imhoff is missing for personal reasons. The same applies to Castres fly half Benjamín Urdapilleta. Perpignan fly half Patricio Fernández was forced out on Wednesday through injury.