Up and Under

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

 

UP

Canada u20, Uruguay u20
Neither Canada nor Uruguay achieved what they would have wanted at the World Rugby u20 Trophy in Romania. Both, however, finished their campaigns extremely well. Canada smashed Romania 71-14 on Sunday, finally winning a game. It came after Canada had been ahead at half time in all their prior matches. Also on Sunday Uruguay downed Hong Kong 78-17. It gave Uruguay a 5th place finish overall and was Los Teritos second win after their thrilling last-gasp victory over Canada.

Nicolás Sánchez
Felipe Contepomi’s point scoring record is no more. On Saturday Nicolás Sánchez scored 14 points for Argentina to over take the World Rugby Hall of Famer. Contepomi finished his career with 87 caps and 651 points. Sánchez now has 655 points from 68 caps. He also moved above Stephen Jones (Wales) and Percy Montgomery (South Africa) to now be 5th on the all-time list of point scorers against New Zealand. With 111 points Sánchez is behind Matt Burke (Australia – 176), Matt Giteau (Australia – 143), Morné Steyn (South Africa – 139), and Michael Lynagh (Australia – 133).

RWC Repechage
Canada’s quest to qualify for RWC 2019 now officially has fixtures. From Sunday November 11 to Friday November 23 Canada will play in Marseille, France against Kenya, Germany, and Hong Kong. Three wins are required to secure the last remaining spot at RWC 2019. All four teams are to play each other with the tournament certain to be full of excitement.

Santiago Cordero
Two weeks into there English Premiership season and the star player from the Americas is Santiago Cordero He was named in Team of the Week last week for plenty of meters made and a try assist. While on Saturday he scored for the Exeter Chiefs in their away win over the Wasps. Cordero again made over 100 meters with ball in hand. In France Juan Imhoff captained Racing 92 to a massive home win. Both wingers are luxury options to join the stellar list which Mario Ledesma currently has at his disposal. Of them Ramiro Moyano scored the Try of the Week.

Andrés Zafra
Saturday was an historic day for the Top 14 with Andrés Zafra earning his first start for Agen. From Colombia, the second-rower started at flanker against Racing 92 in a week 3 fixture of France’s domestic championship. This was nothing short of extraordinary for Zafra and Colombia. With the tremendous progress being made in his homeland there is reason to feel highly positive about the long term growth of rugby in the country and a stronger test team.

Andrés Bordoy
From one Andrés to another, from Colombia to Argentina and from the Top 14 to Super Rugby. Former Puma Andrés Bordoy was signed by Los Jaguares from Pau. This is not to be a player but as forwards coach. Bordoy is as tough as nails, an expert in the scrum and highly regarded in both Argentina and France. He will join Gonzalo Quesada for the 2019 Super Rugby season. It continues the rapid improvement of Argentina’s coaching staff from homebred coaches with relative professional coaching experience to coaches who have impressive resumés abroad.

 

UNDER

Canada Player Strike
Practice at Rugby Canada’s national training centre in Langford, BC began last Tuesday with a number of experienced Canada Sevens holdouts. The players are in a dispute with Rugby Canada in regards to the extreme re-direction of support and training methods to the Senior Men’s XVs program, leaving major questions as to the future of the Men’s Sevens program. This comes two months before Canada’s RWC 2019 Repechage qualifying tournament. The stand taken includes threats of retirement.

Argentina
Los Pumas were in with a chance of victory against New Zealand but were second best. No doubt the All Blacks were the better team though Los Pumas were able to constantly respond to points scored by the home side. This was until the final ten minutes when New Zealand ran clear, winning by a scoreline which does not reflect the match that was played. In quick time Mario Ledesma has turned around a hopeless team from June into a team that will see itself ranked far higher in the World Rankings come RWC 2019.

Jaguares – Pumas Scrum
Argentina had Juan Figallo against South Africa. This saw Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro playing loose head with captain Agustín Cruelty completing the front-row. As impressive as they were in Durban the side without Figallo was immensely inferior in Nelson. A reshuffle saw Santiago García Botta starting at loose head and Tetaz Chaparro at tight head. This was the Jaguares’ front-row from throughout 2018 back together. They were a distant second best against New Zealand. The injection of Gastón Cortés helped and he must now be favorite to play tight head against Australia.

Juan Figallo
Injuries can be cruel. No doubt they are the worst part of playing rugby. Pumas tight head prop Juan Figallo was injured playing for Saracens one week after helping Argentina defeat South Africa in Mendoza. Realistically he ought not to have played in the English Premiership match though hindsight cannot alter the injury. Figallo will not play again until January at the earliest. It is a massive blow for Saracens and Los Pumas.

Guatemala, Panama u19
Day one of the 2018 Sudamérica Rugby u19 Championships saw big wins for Costa Rica and Peru over Panama and Guatemala respectively. In the first series of matches Peru impressed against Panama, winning 60-0. Costa Rica meanwhile won a narrow contest 17-12 against Guatemala. In the second matches neither Costa Rica nor Peru were challenged by their opponents. Costa Rica defeated Panama 50-0 while Peru hammered Guatemala 90-0. On day two the trends continued. This saw Peru crowned champions and Costa Rica runners-up. Engel Pavón (Costa Rica) was named player of the tournament.

Australia vs South Africa
There is constant bickering either side of the equator as to where the Rugby Championship or the Six Nations is the better competition. New Zealand are the strongest team with the three others in the Rugby Championship outmatched yet able to have highly competitive matches against each other. The rugby is usually excellent but on Saturday in Brisbane it was simply awful. Australia and South Africa both played poorly, the latter scoreless in the second half. On another note the stadium had 25,000 empty seats.