Up and Under

Up and Under is a weekly feature on Americas Rugby News which reviews the best and worst from games involving the Americas teams over the previous week.

UP

Rugby Canada
Rugby Canada officials deserve a round of applause for succeeding in selling 29,480 tickets. This was the number in attendance at BC Place in Vancouver on Friday. It sets a new attendance mark for a single rugby match in Canada, though the Vancouver stop on the HSBC Sevens Series retains its place as most-attended rugby event. With BMO Field in Toronto regularly achieving healthy crowds the huge number on the West Coast is highly encouraging.

Chile Sevens
History was made by Los Cóndores on Saturday. Playing at the Silicon Valley Sevens in the USA, Chile defeated New Zealand 7-0. Felipe Brangier was the hero as he scored the try. The win was arguably the greatest accomplishment in the history of Chilean rugby. Los Cóndores also recorded a 39-0 win over Tonga but fell 29-14 to the USA in their final match.

Ghislaine Landry, Perry Baker
Canadian Women’s captain Ghislaine Landry and USA Men’s star Perry Baker were shortlisted for the prestigious Player of the Year awards by World Rugby. Both earned their nominations by being standout performers in the respective women’s and men’s World Sevens circuits this past year. Landry was the leading points scorer on the circuit for the third consecutive season and is now well positioned to become the first woman to reach the coveted 1000-point mark next season with 844 currently on her resume. Perry was the top try-scorer and also the leading point-scorer of the year.

New Pumas
Congratulations to Rodrigo Bruni, Sebastián Cancelliere, Felipe Arregui and Bautista Ezcurra. The four uncapped players were chosen by Daniel Hourcade to represent Argentina this month. Los Pumas face England, Italy and Ireland in Europe over the three coming Saturday afternoons. All four newcomers are to have an opportunity to make their test match debuts. Of them Bruni and Cancelliere have made the roster ahead of Jaguares. Neither player has played Super Rugby.

Benjamín Urdapilleta, AJ MacGinty, Patricio Fernández
This weekend saw three brilliant performances from Americas flyhalves. Former Puma saw Castres to victory on Saturday. Playing away to Oyonnax, the flyhalf scored 22 points, doing so against his former club. Urdapilleta was vital to Castres’ 32-19 win on the road. In the Anglo Welsh-Cup AJ MacGinty landed three conversions and a penalty for the Sale Sharks. His team downed the Worcester Warriors 24-21 in an away fixture. On Sunday Patricio Fernández was man-of-the-match for Clermont. He scored 14 points in what was a late 28-14 defeat to Montpellier.

Santiago Socino
The rise of Santiago Socino continues. The uncapped Argentine hooker scored a try on Saturday. He did so in what was a 53-41 away victory in the Anglo-Welsh Cup. The Newcastle Falcons completed the win on the road against powerhouses, the Wasps. For Socino his try sees his reputation to continue to grow as one of the leading hookers in England. Are Mario Ledesma and the Jaguares staff paying attention?

Juan Pablo Estelles
A year on from starting against England at Twickenham, Juan  Pablo Estelles produced a performance to catch the eye of Daniel Hourcade and his staff. The 2016 Olympian scored two tries and set-up another for the Northampton Saints in their Anglo-Welsh Cup match against the Exeter Chiefs on Saturday. Like the aforementioned Patricio Fernández, Santiago Socino and Benjamín Urdapilleta there is no place for Estelles to even be considered for international duty. Meanwhile Los Pumas have a 1-8 record in 2017.

 

UNDER

Canada
Canada were outclassed by the New Zealand Māori on Friday. Canada were thoroughly beaten, falling 51-9 against the New Zealanders. The fixture was non-capped as it was not against New Zealand’s test team. While there were certainly positives to be taken, high fives can’t be given after coming on the wrong side of a 42-point defeat. Far too many mistakes were committed that gifted possession to the Māori, a team who do not need a second invitation to the try line. Canada will need all of their overseas professionals to be competitive in their European tour.

Uruguay XV
The Uruguay XV fell to Nordeste in Corrientes on Saturday. The 43-22 defeat was a setback in the Uruguay XV’s quest to rise to the top division of the Campeonato Argentino. The 21 point loss underlined how difficult it is to be competitive in Argentina’s second division of the national provincial championship. Uruguay’s team is country’s the official ‘A’ side. Missing are players who will feature for Uruguay against Namibia this month.

France 2023, Ireland 2023
The hopes and dreams of France and Ireland’s respective Rugby World Cup 2023 bids are all but over. They came crashing down on Tuesday as World Rugby recommended South Africa as the country to host the tournament. World Rugby favors South Africa on the basis that it scored 78.97% in meeting World Rugby’s key objectives. France came in second scoring 75.88% while Ireland  scored 72.25%.

Namibia
Namibia’s upcoming two-match home series against Uruguay has not yet started but it is not going to plan. The Welwitschias enter the two match series without a number of regular names. Johannes ‘Aranos’ Coetzee and Torsten van Jaarsveld are not available due to the Guinness Pro 14 Championship Both play their rugby for the Cheetahs. Head Coach Phil Davies is also without PJ van Lill, Janco Venter, Louis van der Westhuizen, Renaldo Bothma, Johan Deysel, Dirk von Weidtz, and Shaun du Preez to injury. Divan Rossouw and Wian Conradie opted out of playing against Uruguay due to their studies. Second-rower Tjiuee Uanivi has been included despite only being available for the second test.

Americas 2
Americas 2 has been handed demanding RWC 2019 scheduling. The winner of the upcoming Rugby World Cup qualifying series between Canada and Uruguay is to be required to face Fiji and Georgia with just three rest days in between. The team will enter Japan 2019 in a mid-week match on Wednesday September 25. Game two will be on September 29. This, in theory, means it is going to be impossible for Americas 2 to field full-strength line-ups for both matches.

Winners and Losers of RWC 2019 Match Schedule
There were both winners and losers from the RWC 2019 match schedule announcement. From the Americas the scheduling was not so desirable. Argentina and the USA both got less than favorable fixture lists while both Americas 2 and the Repechage Winner (potentially Americas 3) are simply having too much asked of them. Los Pumas face France in game 1 and England in game 3. Early elimination is thereby extremely plausible. Just 3 rest days have been allocated to Argentina between their game against England and finishing the pool against the USA. The Eagles benefit from both England and Argentina backing-up quickly before facing them. Yet there is little reason to smile for Eagles players or supporters. The USA have 5 days between facing England and France and 3 between Argentina and Tonga.