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

Magnificent Uruguay Qualify for World Cup
Los Teros recorded a 34-15 win over the USA at Estadio Charrúa to complete a 50-34 series win on aggregate over the Eagles. The outcome of the series sees Los Teros qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2023. It is the first time that Uruguay has secured the Americas 1 position, which earns them a place in Pool A opposite hosts France, New Zealand, Italy, and an African nation to be determined.

Never-Present Chile eliminate ever-present Canada from RWC Qualifiers
Chile produced the biggest win of their history on Saturday as they defeated Canada 33-24 at the Estadio Elías Figueroa in Valparaíso. The result sees Los Cóndores advancing to the Americas 2 Qualifer series for the first time with an aggregate score of 54-46. Doing so saw history made as Chile is now closer to qualifying for a Rugby World Cup than ever before. Moreover, Chile eliminated the ever-present Canada. The North Americans played at every RWC tournament from 1987-2019.

Chile boosts argument for 24-team Rugby World Cup
Los Cóndores’ win was sensational; yet, their performance was measured and calculated. They knew what they were doing and went about their business from start to finish to get the job done. This was a team with zero RWC experience outperforming a participant in all prior RWCs. The Rugby World Cup has consisted of 20 teams since 1999. Canada will miss RWC 2023 while Romania missed 2015 and Uruguay missed both 2007 and 2011. All roads point to expansion for RWC 2027 to be a 24-team tournament.

Bilingual Referees in South America
The officiating went well on Saturday in Valparaíso and Montevideo. Nehuén Jauri Rivero took charge of Chile vs Canada while Damián Schneider was in charge of Uruguay vs USA. Not only did the match officials perform their duty, they happened to do so by using both English and Spanish. Both men were busy during the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR). Meanwhile, Argentina has never had a Spanish-speaking referee in a Rugby Championship match.

Kate Zackary tops the charts in Premier 15s
Kate Zackary was named Premier 15s Player of the Month. The US Eagles captain is co-captaining Exeter Chiefs in what is her second campaign with the team. Since dropping their season opener to Bristol, Exeter have won three straight including an upset road win over defending champions Harlequins. During that time Zackary started at three different positions – openside flanker, number eight, and inside center – and scored two tries.

Facundo Cordero scores a double in big Exeter Chiefs victory
Another impressing in England is Facundo Cordero. The uncapped Argentine speedster crossed for two tries this past weekend. The Exeter Chiefs were 42-5 winners over the Worcester Warriors. His club will be title contenders this season. His uncapped status may not continue for very long. Argentina’s wing stocks took a battering in the recent Rugby Championship and there are certain to be players not selected based on performances as well as to rest some of the busiest Pumas so far this year.

Agustín Creevy on fire for London Irish
One player who has been unused in 2021 is Agustín Creevy. The former Pumas captain has not featured for Argentina since RWC 2019. He looks far from a player who is no longer capable of pulling on a test match jersey. He was a try scorer again this past weekend for London Irish. His try against the Leicester Tigers was his third in four matches thus far in the 2021-2022 English Premiership season.

Upcoming fixtures locked in for Americas heavyweights
The Americas’ RWC 2023 qualifiers have concluded for this year. The USA and Chile will battle-it-out next July to determine who qualifies as Americas 2 and who enters repechage. That series is to be the focs for the two teams next year. Meanwhile, both will play again very shortly. The USA host New Zealand later this month while Chile travel to Russia in November. Additional action involving the Americas sees Canada touring Belgium and Portugal, Brazil playing two test matches in Africa, Uruguay facing Romania and Italy abroad and Argentina facing France, Ireland and Italy.

Premier Rugby Sevens
Somewhat lost in the shuffle on Saturday was the inaugural Premier Rugby Sevens event. Hosted in downtown Memphis, the tournament featured a number of top class internationals along with a mix of Major League Rugby talent and promising amateurs. It remains to be seen if the pilot will eventuate into a sustainable circuit, but the concept is worth pursuing. Unfortunately the timing meant that many potential viewers were busy watching the World Cup Qualifiers.

 

UNDER

Canada miss out on RWC 2023
Canada will not play in France 2023. The RWC 1991 Quarter Finalists missed out on the opportunity of qualifying for RWC 2023 after losing on aggregate to the USA in the North American finals and subsequently losing to Chile in the North American vs South American runners-up series. It was all decided in Valparaíso. Defeat for Canada saw their constant record at RWCs ended. As recently as RWC 2015, Canada was competing well against Tier 1 opponent at a RWC. Canada went very close to producing an upset win over Italy in Leeds, England.

USA well below their best in Montevideo
Americas 1 favorites, the USA failed to seal their place at RWC 2023 on Saturday. The Eagles were clearly the second best team on the day as Los Teros outscored them by four tries to two in Montevideo. The USA were off their game; Uruguay played the best rugby for the majority of the contest. In missing out on qualifying, the Eagles must now turn their attention to Chile. Based on Chile’s win over Canada and the USA’s recent defeat against the same opponent, the USA will need to improve or they could find themselves in the Repechage where all bets are off.

South America send World Rugby a serious message
South America has long argued to World Rugby that the World Cup qualifying process is unfair. The continent was the only one on the planet wherein the winner of the regional series did not qualify directly for the World Cup. Consider Africa compared to South America. Uruguay has wins at RWCs against Spain (1999), Georgia (2003), and Fiji (2019). Zimbabwe was winless at RWCs 1987 and 1991, Côte d’Ivoire was winless at RWC 1995 and Namibia is winless with an 0-22 record. The Africa winner qualifies directly as Namibia did from 1999-2019 while Uruguay qualified for RWCs 1999, 2003, 2015, 2019 and 2023 by playing matches against teams from other regions.

Canada deep in damage control
Rugby Canada CEO Allen Vansen issued a statement in a media release following the Senior Men’s defeat to Chile in Valparaíso on Saturday. The words are familiar, much the same as those made by Vansen in February 2018 following the Senior Men’s defeat by Uruguay in the Americas 2 round of the RWC 2019 qualification process. They would eventually qualify for Japan 2019 through the last-chance Repechage tournament. There is no such escape route this time.