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

Committed Colombia Claim Historic Place in RWC Play-Off Showdown
It was tears of joy for Colombia as Las Tucanes defeated Kazakhstan 18-10 earlier today in Dubai. The result sees Kazakhstan eliminated from the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifiers and Colombia are through to the final against Scotland. The Colombia vs Scotland Play-Off will be played this coming Friday in Dubai.

Major League Rugby arrives in Dallas
On the field it was a heartbreaker as the Jackals saw their stunning lead evaporate in the final minutes of the match. A win over Houston would have been the icing on the cake for what was a spectacular opening day for Major League Rugby at Choctaw Stadium. The field was in pristine condition and the fan turnout looked very promising. There are bright days ahead for MLR’s newest franchise. If we can make on complaint, please turn off the music while game play is on!

Seawolves keep swimming in San Diego
Make it three-from-three for the revitalised Seattle Seawolves. They took the spoils in an exciting contest at the Sports Deck. It was a valiant effort from a battered Legion side, who might have been hard done by with no TMO review of Ben Mitchell’s reach, but on the balance Seattle looked the better side with Tavite Lopeti again underlining his superstar potential. Next week is gearing up to be a clash of the titans with the unbeaten AG’s arriving at Starfire Stadium.

New York edge ATL in barnburner at SilverBacks Park
It could just as easily have been a defensive battle, but fans were instead treated to an exhilarating display of running rugby from both sides. The Ratlers might be wishing they had dialed it back slightly with some reckless passing giving away points to their guests. Full credit to New York whose backline is oozing with talent this season including the terrifying figure of Ed Fidow on the left wing. Our best wishes to John Powers for a speedy recovery from a head knock suffered late in the game.

Free Jacks where they want to be
The New England Free Jacks have a 2-0 season record thus far in MLR 2022. Despite already having had a bye, they sit second in the Eastern Conference. The Free Jacks outscored Old Glory DC seven tries to three to claim a 41-25 win on Friday. A brief period of success for DC wrapped around halftime saw them close an early deficit to just two points, but too many mistakes prevented them from completing an improbable comeback.

Awesome Austin remain unbeaten
The Austin Gilgronis are unbeaten after three rounds of MLR 2022. The perfect start to the season continued this past weekend as Austin claimed a 24-10 home win over the Utah Warriors on Saturday evening. Four tries to one was the final tally, though it could well have been greater were it not for determined defense from the visitors.

Toronto Find Their Feet
The Toronto Arrows found their feet to claim their opening win of MLR 2022. Sam Malcolm kicked 14 points in the win, this included a late penalty goal to lead Toronto to a nervous 24-23 road win over NOLA Gold on Saturday afternoon. Brock Webster also enjoyed a storming start to his professional career with a try on debut. Toronto now have a trip to the out-of-sorts Old Glory DC, a match that comes at the right time for the lone Canadian MLR entrant.

SLAR Referees
Damián Schneider (Argentina), Nehuén Jauri Rivero (Argentina) and Francisco González (Uruguay) are South America’s full-time referee panel. They are joined by Cauã Ricardo (Brazil), and Juan Manuel León (Colombia) for the 2022 SLAR season. The panel also contains a women. Nerea Livoni (Argentina) will act as an assistant referee. She is one of seven assistant referees. Adrian Bogado (Paraguay) is another. He is Paraguay’s leading official at present.

Selknam to devier Chile a ready roster to take-on USA in July
Selknam have a comprehensive roster for SLAR 2022. The roster was named with an eye firmly on the Rugby World Cup 2023 qualifying series wherein Chile will face the USA in home-and-away matches. Selknam provided Chile with the best prepared and most talented roster the country has ever seen to take-on, and defeat, Canada in 2021. Selknam’s roster contains close to what will be the starting XV against the Eagles.

Plenty of Claws on Olímpia Lions Roster
Paraguay’s professional rugby team, the Olímpia Lions combines Paraguayans and Argentines. There are players from the two countries across all positions. Notable Argentines include hooker Mariano Muntaner, back-rowers Ignacio Gandini and Mariano Romanini, scrum-half Ignacio Inchauspe, winger Matías Sauze and fullback Julián Quetglas. This will provide Paraguayans with players to learn from and help develop the national team with an eye on improvement during the RWC 2027 cycle.

Argentines Shine Around the World
There were strong performances from Argentines in MLR this past weekend. Conrad Roura, and Marcos Moroni scored in strong matches. In New Zealand Pablo Matera had a winning debut for the Crusaders in Super Rugby. In France Pumas Felipe Ezcurra, Ramiro Moyano, Bautista Delguy, Juan Imhoff, Facundo Isa, and Tomás Lavanini all scored tries. Benjamín Urdapilleta and Facundo Bosch had key plays to win games.

 

UNDER

0-3 for NOLA Gold
Two teams are yet to win in the MLR Eastern Conference. One of them is NOLA Gold whose 0-3 record sees the team having 2 competition points from the opening three rounds of the season. This is two more than Old Glory DC who are yet to registered competition points. Worrying for NOLA Gold is that they have this coming weekend off, meaning that they could be bottom this time next week depending on other results.

No Homecoming for Old Glory DC
Like NOLA Gold, Old Glory are yet to win a match in the 2022 MLR season. Old Glory DC were beaten 41-25 by the New England Free Jacks this past weekend. The match was the first home game of the season for DC. Attention has turned to the Toronto Arrows, a team who did well to find their feet for their first win of MLR 2022.

Embattled Warriors
The Utah Warriors are also yet to win a match in MLR 2022. They were beaten at home during the latest round of the season. The loss against the Austin Gilgronis sees the Utah Warriors restructured to 3 competition points after three rounds. This places the team second from bottom in the Western Conference ahead of rookie team the Dallas Jackals. Utah have a bye next weekend before taking-on Dallas.

Waiting on the Cafeteros Roster
Los Cafeteros Pro’s roster is yet to be announced. It is understood that the Colombian SLAR entrant will have 20 Argentines with the number of Colombians remaining unknown. Los Cafeteros Pro were not afraid of giving Colombians opportunities during the 2021 season. The approach saw comparatively more than that of Paraguayans for the Olímpia Lions.

SLAR’s loss is Italy’s gain
Lucas Bur is moving to Italy. The Argentine will play for Rovigo, doing so alongside countryman Facundo Ferrario. Rovigo will be Bur’s first foreign team. He makes the move after previously having played for Argentina at u20 level and for the Argentina XV. Bur was on the radar for selection for the 2020 Rugby Championship. He missed out through injury and opted to not play in the 2021 SLAR season.

Rugby Championship to lose South Africa
This past week saw the Rugby Championship signed to continue until 2025; yet, the headline was that the tournament is preparing for life without South Africa. Chris Foy says that South Africa are going to replace Italy in the Six Nations from 2025. If so then South Africa leaving the Rugby Championship to provide financial harm that neither Rugby Australia nor the New Zealand Rugby Union have previously felt. Suddenly, the Six Nations is no-longer a European tournament. Is Italy’s place in the Six Nations secure? No end to the closed shop for Georgia?

JUSTICE FOR MOE
It wasn’t the only officiating decision that left us scratching our head on Saturday, but it was certainly the most egregious. Dallas captain Moe Abdelmonem was inexplicably shown a yellow card for what amounted to nothing more than handbags at dawn with Christian Dyer. We can forgive the assistant referee whose angle might have suggested there was more in it, but with the benefit of television review there is no excuse for the ridiculous decision. A handshake and a ‘sorry sir’ would have sufficed for the two players. Poor form TMO.