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

Women’s Eagles’s Claim Bronze
The USA’s quest for Olympic Qualification got off to a strong start as the Women’s Eagles claimed Bronze in the opening round of the World Sevens Series in Dubai. It could have been a much different result for the USA, but captain Naya Tapper’s second half try against Ireland was just enough to put them into the Semi Finals. New Zealand were virtually untouchable but the Eagles then bested France to secure their podium finish.

Mixed results for Americas Men in Dubai
Both Argentina and the USA had strong opening days in Dubai, but missed out on podium positions with the Eagles finishing 4th and Los Pumas 6th. Both teams need to average top-four performances to achieve automatic Olympic qualification. Uruguay continued to demonstrate progress on the opening day before finishing 10th on Day Two. Canada finished 14th.

Historic first on the way for Brazilian rugby
While much work is to be done on the domestic product, Brazil should soon see an historic moment for the country. Front rower Wilton Rebolo has signed on with the Western Force, and is set to become the first Brazilian player to appear in Super Rugby. Former Tupis flyhalf David Harvey, an Australian who qualified on ancestry, played for the same side in 2012 but didn’t make his first test appearance until three years later.

Dallas Jackals signing Los Chacales 
The Dallas Jackals are piecing together what ought to be a very competitive team for Major League Rugby in 2023. This past week saw the team moving towards being Los Chacales with further recruitment from Argentina. Scrumhalf Pedro Imhoff, flanker Jerónimo Gómez Vara, and hooker Tomás Baravalle all make the move stateside. They join former Pumas tighthead prop Juan Pablo Zeiss, ex-Pumas Sevens standout Marcos Moroni in Texas. More are to follow.

Raptors lifeline for Cafeteros
The overdue announcement of SLAR 2023, a la Super Rugby Americas is to include confirmation of the teams. The American Raptors are to be a newcomer while Colombia’s SLAR entrant, Los Cafeteros Pro will not feature. A lifeline is that the Raptors are set to include Colombians on their roster.

Germán Kessler Scores in Key win for Provence
There was a solid performance for Uruguay’s Germán Kessler on Friday. The hooker scored a second-half try for Provence in a 23-6 win over Carcassonne. Elsewhere in the Pro D2, Argentine Segundo Tuculet scored for Montauban who were beaten by Rouen.

Argentines impress in European Elite
There were many highlight reels featuring Argentine tries in Europe over the weekend. In England Lucio Cinti scored two tries win London Irish’s win. Santiago Carreras scored one and kicked six goals in a man-of-the-match performance for Gloucester against Newcastle. Mateo Carreras scored for Newcastle. Julián Montoya scored for the Leicester Tigers. Martín Bogado scored for Bayonne who defeated Lyon.

Gonzalo García is back
At long last Gonzalo García made his United Rugby Championship debut. He made an appearance for Zebre against the Glasgow Warriors on Friday. García was on Argentina’s first roster for the year but injury saw him miss the entirety of the twelve test matches. Domingo Miotti is back too; he scored his first try for Glasgow while Sebastián Cancelliere was also a try scorer.

Another title for UBC Thunderbirds
The Canadian Men’s University Championships wrapped up in Vancouver on Sunday. UBC completed a dominant showing at the tournament with a blowout win over McGill to earn their 4th national title. Several Thunderbirds have already represented Canada at various levels and MLR scouts will have been busy writing down names of potential future draft picks. Overall it was the most competitive running of the event though the T-Birds continue to raise the bar for what is required to win.

 

UNDER

Brazil flop in Dubai
Two tries each from Bianca Farella and Keyara Wardley gave Canada an overwhelming victory over Brazil in the 9th Place Semi Final. As Yaras will need to head back to the drawing board after leaving the tournament with five consecutive defeats. Despite scoring three tries of their own, the Brazilians conceded 31 points to China to finish at the bottom of the standings.

Continuing with 20-team Men’s Team World Cup
The Men’s Rugby World Cup last expanded for the 1999 tournament. Efforts under French and British leadership at World Rugby have been unfocused; little attention has been made to expansion. This includes the qualifying process with most teams not needing to qualify and allowed places being unevenly distributed. RWC 2027 ought to feature 24 teams.

SLAR 2023 Announcement
It is the worst kept secret; SLAR is expanding in 2023 with Canada and the USA having teams in the league. Super Rugby Americas will replace SLAR, but the announcement is long overdue. It is now many weeks late; though, as noted it is no secret what the name will be nor that it is expanding. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Canada and the USA will have teams in the league.

Year over for Lucas Paulos
Brive welcomed Nicolás Sánchez with open arms. His arrival is a boost to the club’s mission to avoid relegation.  Meanwhile, a fellow Puma is out until the new year; Lucas Paulos will not play in December. Brive are bottom of the table. The team needs to string wins together or the gap will become too big to overcome as the Top 14 season runs its course.