Americas Rugby Coach of the Year 2021

2021 was a year of highs and lows for teams from throughout the Americas. Some enjoyed more success and others more failures. Uruguay and Chile are the two who surpassed their expectations. Their head coaches are the leading contenders to be the best Americas Rugby Coach of the year for 2021.

Esteban Meneses coached Uruguay to Americas 1. The Argentine made history as a North American country was unable to qualify for a Rugby World Cup as Americas 1 for the first time. Uruguay overcame Brazil and Chile in South American regional qualifiers to advance to the final against the USA who had beaten Canada.

In the battle of North vs South, the USA had home advantage for game one of their two-match series against Uruguay. The Eagles were 19-16 winners in Colorado and Meneses’ Teros won 34-15 in Montevideo.

The outcome was historic; Uruguay qualified for RWC 2023 as Americas 1. It set-up an Americas 2 final between the USA and the winner of the home-and-away series between Canada and Chile in July 2022.

Chile will be the USA’s opposition. Los Cóndores also made history in 2021. Results mean that Chile are closer than ever to participating in a Rugby World Cup. Pablo Lemoine guided the South Americans to a historic win over Canada; an outcome that means RWC 2023 will be the first Men’s tournament without Canada.

Lemoine’s team very nearly also upset Uruguay in Montevideo in an earlier RWC qualifier. The writing was on the wall; Los Cóndores were notably improved in 2021 compared to performances from the RWC 2015-2019 cycle. Chile prepared for Canada by upsetting the Argentina XV.

Chile also enjoyed success in November. Los Cóndores traveled to Russia for an away test series. The South Americans completed a 30-29 victory in game one and a comprehensive 42-27 win in game two.

Uruguay’s November saw a three match tour to Italy, two of which were capped test matches. A below-strength Uruguay were beaten by Romania and by Italy in the test matches. Los Teros performed well in the match against Italy.

Other Americas coaches did not have comparative success to that of Meneses and Lemoine in 2021. Gary Gold’s USA Eagles had a good performance against England. The Eagles then had good home wins against Canada and against Uruguay in the RWC qualifiers.

Gold’s good results were overshadowed by others. The USA were hammered by Ireland in Dublin and were very much outplayed in losing away to Canada. The Eagles recovered to defeat Canada and advance to face Uruguay; yet, it was Los Teros who took out the series to qualify for RWC 2023 as Americas 1. The USA were then humbled by New Zealand in late October.

Kingsley Jones and Canada had a year to forget. Losing to Chile was a first and it brought with it catastrophic consequences. Attention has already turned to RWC 2027. This included the November Internationals where Canada lost to Portugal for the first time before ending 2021 with a good win over Belgium. Serious questions remain unanswered as to why Jones is the Canadian head coach.

Argentina started 2021 well. Mario Ledesma’s Pumas defeated Romania in Bucharest, drew game one against Wales in Cardiff and won the second test match by a record margin. What followed as a winless Rugby Championship and an underwhelming tour to Europe in November. A win over Italy saw Ledesma securing his job as head coach.

Brazil was another to not have the best year. Head Coach Fernando Portugal had reason to have high hopes; Brazil achieved record highs during the RWC 2015-2019 cycle. 2021 started well with a big win over Paraguay in the RWC 2023 qualifiers.

The win over Paraguay was not replicated. Brazil was subsequently beaten by Chile and by Uruguay to be eliminated from RWC 2023 contention. Further disappointment came on Brazil’s November tour to Africa. Os Tupis were beaten by the lower ranked Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Who then, of Meneses and Lemoine merits the Americas Rugby Coach of the Year 2021? As noted, no coach had a 100% winning record in 2021. Lemoine ultimately wins out for three reasons. First, defeating the Argentina XV meant that Chile’s High Performance players defeated Argentina’s High Performance players for the first time. Second, Chile beating Canada was truly historic and extremely significant. Third, Chile won away against Russia in November.

 

AMERICAS RUGBY COACH OF THE YEAR 2021: PABLO LEMOINE