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

USA is bidding to host Men’s and Women’s Rugby World Cups
The bid campaign for the USA to host a Rugby World Cup is officially underway. A media conference last Wednesday morning in the nation’s capital unveiled the plans to potentially host one or more of the 2027 or 2031 Men’s events, or the 2029 Women’s tournament. Included is a list of 29 cities who have expressed interest and are currently being considered in the USA’s bid. Notably there is only one Canadian city included – Vancouver – with no place for other large metropolitan areas like Toronto or Montreal.

Chile ‘A’ tick all boxes against Paraguay ‘A’
These are exceptional times for Chilean rugby. Los Cóndores eliminated Canada to advance to the finals of the Americas RWC qualifiers and the ‘A’ side powered past Paraguay ‘A’ to open the Americas Pacific Challenge in style. The 62-0 win was not against an amateur opponent; like Chile, Paraguay has a High Performance program. Chile scored eight tries and conceded none. The win was with a young side, a very different one from that which played in the recent RWC qualifiers.

Uruguay ‘A’ impress against Brazil ‘A’
Uruguay ‘A’ defeated Brazil ‘A’ 28-12 on Friday evening. 22-year-old flyhalf Matias D’Avanzo scored 13 points while hooker Emiliano Faccennini, center Koba Brazionis and prop Ignacio Péculo each scored tries. None are established names in the Teros test side. The pool of players included SLAR names as well as some not yet involved in SLAR.

Nate Augspurger makes history
It is not easy to find positives from a 104-14 defeat; however, there were happy players and fans to see two tries. The first went to Nate Augspurger who with help from Nate Brakeley went through a gap and did well to finish it off. It was the first ever try by the USA against New Zealand in a test match. A second came later for San Diego teammate Ryan Matyas.

Argentines in Europe
In an eventful weekend in Europe, Argentine players scored in each of the three major leagues: the URC, Top 14 and Premiership. Thomas Gallo scored two tries for Benetton against the Scarlets while Pumas teammate Juan Cruz Mallía scored two for Toulouse against Castres. Tomás Cubelli also scored for Biarritz and Juan Imhoff did so for Racing 92. Former Puma Agustín Creevy scored again; he has five tries for London Irish in consecutive matches.

Thomas Gallo storms into the try zone
Thomas Gallo merits special mention. The 22-year-old’s first try on Friday was sensational. The Argentine loose head picked up from the base of a ruck and got past three Scarlets defenders. They were both forwards and backs. The solo try was Gallo running 25 meters en route to what will be considered not only one of the great prop tries of the season, but potentially one of the great all-time tries by a prop.

Nonu returns to MLR
There were a few notable Major League Rugby signings over the past week. Undoubtedly the biggest announcement was the return of Ma’a Nonu to the San Diego Legion. He will be 40 years old by the time the 2022 season is finished but the All Black star has kept himself in tip-top shape. The Arrows celebrated the addition of Kyle Baillie, Houston grabbed Legion back row Keni Nasoqeqe and a new scrumhalf in Dillon Smit, ex-NOLA prop John Sullivan signed for ATL, with Canadian front rowers Foster DeWitt and Liam Murray going to New England and Dallas respectively.

UNDER

Eagles obliterated by All Blacks in DC
The All Blacks put the USA to the sword in the nation’s capital on Saturday with the final score reading 104-14 to the visitors. New Zealand were playing in honor of their fallen comrade Sean Wainui and were in no mood to take it easy on their hosts. The result was the second-highest score ever against the USA behind only England’s 106-8 win at Twickenham in 1999. Some positives can be taken but the porous defense particularly in the first half will not be one of them.

Gary Gold’s comments on South America
Before Saturday’s test match had taken place there were eyebrows raised to comments made by Eagles coach Gary Gold. “Teams like Uruguay and Chile, we were beating both those teams by 70 points three years ago,” he told the New Zealand Herald. The USA did record 71-8, 57-9, and 64-0 results over Chile in the Americas Rugby Championship, but the Cóndores were a completely amateur side during those matches and now field a professional outfit. Uruguay defeated the USA 29-25 in 2016 and 32-25 in 2019.

USA’s 2021 ends early and on a sour note
With the proposed match against Ireland in Las Vegas cancelled and no European tour in November, the Men’s Eagles have played for the last time in 2021. They are next scheduled to play in July 2022, when they meet Chile in the Americas 2 World Cup Qualifier. Given the largely disappointing results in 2021, the door looks to be open for potential bolters to force their way into the squad with a strong showing in the new Major League Rugby season.

USA Selects miss the boat
Friday’s match between the Argentina XV and the USA Selects in Montevideo was cancelled. The match was to be part of the opening round of the Americas Pacific Challenge. A statement from USA Rugby cites the cause as “challenges experienced in transit.” It unfortunately denies the players the experience of playing against the best team in the competition.

Paraguay ‘A’ Battered and Humbled
Paraguay ‘A’ were outclassed by Chile ‘A’ on Friday. The Paraguayans failed to score a point and were outmatched across the park. Chile ‘A’ went about their business well to underline the difference between Chilean and Paraguayan rugby at present. It is a long road ahead for Paraguay. There are crucial differences between the two. The approach to the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) has seen Chile transformed into a team that ought to be considered Tier 2 level. Paraguay’s high dependence on Argentine players for SLAR is not consistent with Chile’s approach.

Brazil ‘A’ plagued by slow start
The final score was a big win for Uruguay ‘A’ over Brazil ‘A’ on Friday; yet, Brazil won the second half 12-3. The Uruguayans had an excellent opening half. They slowed down in the second half; seemingly doing so after the task had been done. The match was very different to many Brazil vs Uruguay test matches. Those played during the 2016-2019 years tended to see Brazil performing well in the first half and Uruguay pulling away in the second.

Pumas Missing 20 players Rugby Championship for November
A number of Mario Ledesma’s Rugby Championship roster are absent from the November Internationals – some injured and some not selected. Among the most notable backs are veterans Santiago Cordero, Matías Orlando, and rising star Santiago Chocobares. Missing up front are test regulars Enrique Pieretto and Tomás Lezana, and promising No8 Joaquín Oviedo.

Kathy Flores RIP
USA Rugby great Kathy Flores has died at the age of 66 after a battle with illness. A long-time Head Coach of the USA Women’s Eagles, she had been Head Coach of Brown University for the past eight years. An accomplished player before turning to coaching, Flores captained the USA Senior Women’s side when they played their first international test against Canada in 1987. She was the starting No8 on the team that won the 1991 World Cup in Wales and would continue on as a test regular through the 1994 World Cup, eventually retiring as a player in 1998. Flores took charge of the Eagles as Head Coach in 2003, and would lead the team to 5th place finishes in at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.