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

PRO Rugby Signings 
All five of the PRO Rugby teams competing in the inaugural season have at least one foreign player signed on to their rosters at present. Currently Sacramento leads the way with Mirco Bergamasco and Ray Barkwill having joined the Californian capital’s team. The Italian and Canadian are to be joined by players from other countries, including more Canadians. To date a player born in both Chile and Samoa has also signed. Others are to follow as are many Eagles players.

Premiership Broadcasting in USA
Further encouraging news for the USA is that an historic three-year deal was made with the Aviva Premiership to broadcast top English matches on a regular basis in the USA. The first ever match played outside of England between London Irish and Saracens was broadcast this past weekend.

Vancouver Sevens
North of the border on the Pacific Coast records were made at Vancouver as the Canada Sevens were a huge success. More than 60,000 attended over the two days, with World Rugby officials and fans alike all unanimous in their appraisal of the event. Credit must go to the organizers and also to the Canadian team for putting on a show for the fans, with John Moonlight and Nathan Hirayama central to their team’s success in the Bowl competition.

Argentina Aiming Big
Confirmation from UAR President Carlos Araujo of where Argentina’s Rugby Championship matches will be played underlined that the union is aiming big. After Los Pumas take-on South Africa in the northern city of Salta the second and third home Rugby Championship matches will break new ground. Argentina will face New Zealand at Argentina’s largest stadium, River Plate and then move the home match against Australia to London’s Twickenham Stadium. The marketing machine will work overtime for all three games to sell-out.

Ecuador
A state provided rugby field was unveiled in Quito, Ecuador this past week. The field will ensure a quality location for established and future rugby athletes from in and around the country’s capital to be better prepared than ever before. Currently Quito is home to more than 300 rugby players.

Uruguay
An historic tour awaits Uruguay in November of this year. Los Teros are to play Germany, Romania and Tonga in Europe to complete international competition in 2016. The tour is to complete a year which will also involve tests against Romania and either Russia or Spain in June. Prior to that Los Teros will play non-capped matches against the Fiji Warriors and face Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay in capped internationals. Meanwhile former captain Rodrigo Capó Ortega scored for Castres as he captained them to 50-6 thrashing of Agen.

Tomás Cubelli
A third Super Rugby start for the Buenos Aires scrum half in as many weeks for Tomás Cubelli resulted in the perfect beginning to the Brumbies campaign continuing. With 13 competition points the Brumbies lead the Australasian conference and tie the Sharks for overall first position.

UNDER

Los Pumas 7s
For the first time this season the Argentine sevens team failed to qualify for the Cup side of the draw on the HSBC Sevens Series. Los Pumas failed to reach their potential, losing to both South Africa and Scotland en route to finishing third in the pool. The were then quietly knocked out in the Bowl semi final by France. They have work to do ahead of Hong Kong.

London Irish
While the amount of game time and the form of Canadian Ciaran Hearn has been noteworthy at London Irish the club is in turmoil. With just three wins from sixteen rounds played London Irish sit bottom on 13 competition points, eight behind their closest rivals the Newcastle Falcons. In order to avoid relegation London Irish need to get off bottom. Time is running out.

Gonzalo Quesada
In trouble but of a less graver nature is Stade Français. The Gonzalo Quesada coached Top 14 side is anything other than title contenders this season. The Parisians home loss against Racing 92 on Saturday sees the 2015 champions retaining 12th position. 22 points behind the 6th place Toulouse Stade Français have ten matches remaining to turn things around.

Felipe Berchesi
Having not been released by Carcassonne for Americas Rugby Championship duty, Felipe Berchesi has been busy in the lower table of the Pro d2. With 22 matches having been played Carcassonne are in 13th spot out of 16. Just three points behind them is the relegation zone. This weekend Berchesi kicked one penalty in his club’s 12-3 away loss against Montauban. The mid-table Mont de Marsan released Agustín Ormaechea who started in the win over the USA.

Jaguares Prop Concerns
Doubt surrounds who will start at both loosehead and tighthead prop for Los Jaguares against the Chiefs this coming Saturday. The round four Super Rugby fixture is to be the first ever professional game played in South America but the home side may be without a feared weapon as the leading props on either side of the scrum many both miss out through injury. Loosehead Lucas Noguera Paz will, indeed, play no part while Ramiro Herrera is one of three others in the 42-man roster being monitored. Suddenly the extent of the losses of Bruno Postiglioni to the Pro 12 and Juan Pablo Orlandi to the Top 14 is clear.