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

Brazil Women earn historic best in Dubai
Brazil celebrated an historic weekend in Dubai with their highest-ever finish in a World Sevens Series event. As Yaras earned a 6th-place finish, defeating the Women’s Eagles for the first time and falling short to Great Britain by only a single point. Their previous best event finish was 8th, with 10th-place their best ranking at season’s end. Brazil finished higher than both the USA and Canada in the first tournament of the season.

Eagles Lined with Silver in Dubai, Pumas claim Bronze
Americas teams claimed two of the top three spots in the men’s bracket at the Dubai Sevens. No team was able to match dominant champions South Africa, but the USA would finish as runners-up with Argentina celebrating a 3rd-place ranking in the first event of the new World Sevens Series campaign. A try in extra time from 20-year-old debutante Tomás Lizazu gave Los Pumas a dramatic win over Ireland in the Cup Quarter Final. They fell short against the Blitzboks but again impressed with a win over Fiji to claim third overall. Joaquín Lamas, also playing in his first Series tournament, scored two tries and added two conversions.

Uruguay and Chile qualify for 2022 Rugby Sevens World Cup
Uruguay and Chile booked their places at the 2022 Rugby Sevens World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. Chile were 21-14 winners over Brazil to reach the tournament final. In doing so, Chile were confirmed for Cape Town 2022. Uruguay were comfortable winners over Peru in their Semi Final and also over Chile in the Final.

Sensational Chile send massive warning to the USA
Chile were 42-27 winners over Russia on Friday in Sochi. The away victory saw Chile making history by claiming an away series victory. It also sends a high alert warning to the USA, Chile’s opponents in the Americas 2 final in July. The winner will qualify for RWC 2023 and join Argentina, England, Japan and Samoa in Pool D. Attention now turns to 2022. The bulk of the team will play for Selknam in the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). They will do so with careful planning also well underway for the Rugby World Cup 2023 qualifiers against the USA in July.

Levy stars as Women’s Baa-Baa’s set world attendance record
USA Eagles winger Sarah Levy scored a hat trick as the Barbarians defeated a Springbok Women XV 60-5 at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon. The contest set a new world record attendance mark for a women’s rugby match with 29,581 on hand in London to witness the entertaining spectacle. There were six North American players starting for the Barbarians. Canadian forwards Laura Russell and Karen Paquin joined three other USA internationals in prop Hope Rogers, second row Alycia Washington, and fullback Bulou Mataitoga.

USA a step closer to hosting a Men’s Rugby World Cup
World Rugby announced their preferred candidates  for Rugby World Cups 2025 (Women) and 2027 (Men). England take the lead for the Women’s event and Australia for the Men’s tournament. While stopping short of handing them preferential status, the USA will move forward with “exclusive targeted dialogue” for the hosting of the Men’s tournament in 2031. The Women’s tournament in 2029 has multiple suitors with none advancing their claim as of yet.

UNDER

Americas thrown under the bus by new player eligibility laws
World Rugby Council’s approval to dramatically change player eligibility to international rugby saw nothing good for the Americas. The change will allow players to represent a second nation after a three-year stand-down period from their last ‘binding’ representative appearance for their first nation. Critics argue that the change artificially boosts the Island teams – particularly Samoa and Tonga – to a disproportionate degree with few benefits to other ‘Tier 2’ sides. It also fails to address the comparatively low number of Samoan or Tongan-born players who play for the national sides with many New Zealanders qualifying on heritage instead selected. Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay may all play at RWC 2023. They are each completely homegrown. By contrast Samoa had only 3 players born and developed on the islands at RWC 2019.

CEO steps away from Rugby Canada
Allen Vansen announced that he is stepping down from his position as Chief Executive Officer of Rugby Canada effective February 1. The change comes as part of a leadership transition and in the wake of what has been a tumultuous year for the organization. John Tait was controversially removed as Head Coach of the Women’s Sevens program and the team subsequently fell well short of its medal goals at the Olympics. The Senior Men’s XVs then crashed out of the World Cup Qualifiers for the first time. It remains to be seen if there are changes to other leadership positions within the organization.

Men’s Barbarians and Manu Samoa no-go
The Barbarians were to take on a Manu Samoa XV on Saturday in London, England. Instead the international fixture was called off, notably leaving retiring Samoan lock Joe Tekori and Ireland fullback Rob Kearney without a send-off. Argentine players Marcos Moneta and Rodrigo Fernández Criado were also to play in the match. The match was a great opportunity for both players who are uncapped by Los Pumas.

Disaster for Brazil Men’s Sevens who miss out 
Brazil finished third in the South American 7’s in Costa Rica. It meant missing out on the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens. This cannot be described as anything but disaster. Key players did not go to Africa to face Zimbabwe and Kenya this month as priority was given to the Sevens. The end result was losses in both Africa and Costa Rica. Brazil had a bittersweet campaign. On the one hand the team produced some highly impressive results including beating Panama 71-0 and Guatemala 80-0. On the other hand, Brazil went from a strong position to losing their Semi Final against Chile.

Who needs variety anyhow?
Argentina will have three home test matches against Scotland in July 2022. The three match series will be historic; never before have Scotland toured Argentina for so many matches. The Northern British test team’s prior tours to Argentina have been for one or two test matches. The tour will see Los Pumas playing at home on July 2, 9, and 16. There will be a return match in November with Scotland hosting Argentina. The unconfirmed tour will also see matches away against Wales and England. The six other test matches will be Rugby Championship games. How about some variety? A test against Georgia in Tbilisi? Against Uruguay in Montevideo? Against Japan in Osaka? The 2021 match against Romania was a huge positive. 2022 is entirely Tier 1 and against highly familiar rivals.