Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The third and final weekend has concluded for Americas teams competing in the November Internationals. Four Americas teams were in action in Europe. This was a reduction to six teams as neither Brazil nor Canada had matches in week 3. ARN has selected the very best performers from the four matches and compiled the ARN Americas Team of the Week.
| Americas Team of the Week – November 2024 |
Week 1 – Click Here
Week 2 – Click Here
| NOVEMBER WEEK 3 RECAP |
37-23 
(Paris, FR)
21-23 
(Bucharest, RO)
23-26 
(Madrid, ES)
19-17
(Edinburgh, GB-SCO)
| HONORABLE MENTIONS |
Nate Augspurger and Mark O’Keeffe were try scorers for the USA. Both had fine games but Gastón Mieres and Mateo Carreras were the top performers out wide. Carreras won a turnover and made 49 meters despite being a replacement. Mieres scored a brilliant try and tackled his heart out in his final test match for his country.
Tomás Albornoz again impressed for Argentina with ball in hand; he ran 94 meters. AJ MacGinty gets the nod for directing play. The Eagles back’s ran in four tries while Los Pumas’ two tries were both from front-rowers. Tavite Lopeti scored two of the Eagles’ four tries.
In General, Los Pumas’ backs were substandard with France’s playing notably better rugby. However, many of Argentina’s forwards had strong matches. Joaquín Oviedo made 18 tackles and ran 56 meters as well as completing 2 offloads and beating 4 defenders. Pedro Rubiolo made 16 tackles including 3 dominant tackles.
Juan Martín González was a stand-out. He had two line breaks from 12 carries and gained 107 meters with four defenders beaten. He was yellow carded by Luke Pearce for an intentional knock-on. The ball went backwards not forwards from the hand with the referee dubiously changing his original impression to contradict his own words. Argentina will not want Pearce for future matches.
The Pumas front-row had a match of ups and downs. Thomas Gallo scored and improved in the scrum though was penalized. Javier Carrasco was solid for Los Cóndores. Julián Montoya’s early yellow card was a game changer. Ignacio Ruiz impressed late in the match. Kapeli Pifeleti was in the thick of the action for the USA.
Felipe Aliaga and Manuel Leindekar were busy for Uruguay around the field. The lineout could have been better. Greg Peterson was yellow carded for the USA. Jason Damm’s move from the back-row to the second-row has been a success for the Eagles.
The freezing cold of northern Great Britain did not stop Chile looking to rectify their poor performance from a week earlier against the Netherlands. Luca Strabucchi scored a runaway try and Nicolás Garafulic an interception. The forwards were competitive but second best to Scotland A. Martín Sigren was impressive in the lineout and around the field but Uruguay’s Lucas Bianchi was even better against Romania.
| ARN – AMERICAS TEAM OF THE WEEK – NOVEMBER 2024 WEEK 2 |
1 Javier Carrasco
2 Kapeli Pifeleti
3 Ignacio Péculo
4 Felipe Aliaga
5 Pedro Rubiolo
6 Lucas Bianchi
7 Juan Martín Gonzalez
8 Joaquín Oviedo
9 Santiago Álvarez
10 AJ MacGinty
11 Mateo Carreras
12 Tavite Lopeti
13 Felipe Arcos Pérez
14 Gastón Mieres
15 Luca Strabucchi
