2019 Americas Rugby Championship

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Oft overlooked, the ARC has coincided (probably not coincidentally), with fairly sustained improvement in US and Uruguayan international rugby. The US are two times defending champions, partly due to improved performance and partly due to Argentina field what is likely a 3rd string side. The burning questions are:

Will the US make it three championships in a row? (Yes)
Will Argentina throw some fringe Jaguares into the mix to give them a chance of overall victory? (No)
Will Argentina be better now that Contepomi has left as coach? (Yes)
Will Uruguay continue to show they are better than Canada? (Yes)
Will Brazil now leapfrog Canada in the table? (*sucks through his teeth indecisively*)
Will anyone care about Chile, other than the fact they play in the possibly the most picturesque setting in world rugby? (probably not)
Will any fans attend a home Uruguayan game to see their greatly improved performances (ignoring the Fiji drubbing in the EOYT)?

All this and more will be established in the coming weeks.

Week 1

Chile vs USA
Argentina XV vs Brazil
Uruguay vs Canada

The first two fixtures look like obvious results, despite some improvement from Brazil (I'm worried with them moving position of their star player Sancery). The game of the week being a rematch of the World Cup Qualifier that saw Uruguay show mild superiority over Canada. Perhaps Canada will play a bit more freely now that the pressure is off due to RWC qualification? Or perhaps, they'll still stink.

 

[Dai Perk]

Will Brazil now leapfrog Canada in the table? (*sucks through his teeth indecisively*)

Loved that bit!

Ironically, as an American, I can't even find where to watch these matches. I have Super Rugby, Premiership, Pro14, European Cup, Six Nations, and the Autumn Internationals... and no games with the American side.

 

[die_mole]

the non usa games will be available on espn+... usa rugby however is so incompetent (or at least used to be) that all the rights to american tests were sold to florugby which costs 15 dollars a month and which i know like 3 people that subscribe to it

 

[Dai Perk]

South Africa: We're having a hard time making rugby sustainable in our country.
USA: Hold my beer.

 

[die_mole]

South Africa: We're having a hard time making rugby sustainable in our country.
USA: Hold my beer.

oh i miss the rugby coverage in south africa, they do sport coverage so much better than we do it's not even funny

they have a channel dedicated to each sport and there's very little sport talk. it's either live game, extended highlights, short highlights, or full replays

it's on cable which is inaccessible to a majority of the population but if you can afford supersport it's the most amazing thing in the world

we are very lucky that we have a lot of leagues available for very cheap. the problem is that you have to know where you to look for it so not many casuals will catch on

 

[Dai Perk]

Have you caught the South African "Rugby 365 Podcast"? It's great, they really get into the nitty gritty, totally love it.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Contepomi coaches Argentina XV and they lose 33-36 to Brazil. Lobbe takes over and its a 54-3 loss for Brazil. A bit of an oversimplification, but my bias is confirmed. Contepomi is the last, best hope for a competitive Pro 14 and Heineken Cup!

 

[die_mole]

Aj McGinty has a couple tries in what I believe what was his first game for awhile.

Florugby let espn show the game live on their streaming platform so imagine more than 10 people actually watched it.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Uruguay score a lovely opening try from the scrum halfs box kick. He then promptly gets sent off inside 20mins after performing a suplex out of bounds. A man down for the rest of thr match and trailing 8-17, Uruguay show winning is a habit with two late tries. Inexcusable by Canada, but it is early days for their professional side(s), so I'm sure they can improve come the RWC.

The only outstanding questions are as per my original post. Can an improved Argentina XV reclaim the ***le and can Brazil leapfrog Canada? I think the answer is 'no' to both.

 

[die_mole]

Uruguay score a lovely opening try from the scrum halfs box kick. He then promptly gets sent off inside 20mins after performing a suplex out of bounds. A man down for the rest of thr match and trailing 8-17, Uruguay show winning is a habit with two late tries. Inexcusable by Canada, but it is early days for their professional side(s), so I'm sure they can improve come the RWC.

The only outstanding questions are as per my original post. Can an improved Argentina XV reclaim the ***le and can Brazil leapfrog Canada? I think the answer is 'no' to both.

surprised uruguay won... i turned it off with about 15 to go to watch the sevens. No way canada should be losing to a 14 man uruguay

 

[Dai Perk]

I have faith in Argentina, but have a hard time seeing Brazil passing Canada... though after a performance like this, maybe it wouldn't be much of a leapfrog!

 

[Leinster Fan]

Contepomi coaches Argentina XV and they lose 33-36 to Brazil. Lobbe takes over and its a 54-3 loss for Brazil. A bit of an oversimplification, but my bias is confirmed. Contepomi is the last, best hope for a competitive Pro 14 and Heineken Cup!

Don't know anything about his coaching record in Argentina but and his arrival at Leinster has coincided with a vast increase in the quality of inside centre play here. Our backup outhalves are generally showing a bit more as well. He deserves obvious credit for that anyway.

 

[Welshdragon2000]

I'm a bit late to the party here as I didn't know this was a thread!
Anyway, I didn't get to see any of the games unfortunately except 10 minutes of the USA game and the last 10 minutes of the Uruguay game. But I've read up on the games as much as I can and I have watched the USA, Canada and Uruguay a lot over the past so here's my thoughts.
Let's start with Canada. I thought the repechage had changed their fortunes, I really did but it's such a shame that they seem to have gone back to old habits and form. Uruguay has their best player, Arata, sent off 15 minutes in so the fact that Canada couldn't beat 14 man Uruguay over 60 minutes is very worrying. The MLR will help but they do need a second team soon to make a meaningful impact. Canada should have been aiming for a top 3 finish but now they'll be fighting to avoid a 5th place finish with Brazil (who I do think will push Canada all the way).
Uruguay were exciting me in last year's ARC until the USA game and since then they have been very disappointing. Their autumn performances were well below the standard I expected but clearly they have improved as they were able to win against a (supposed) revitalised Canada with 14 men. They'll finish 3rd this year. Argentina XV have picked their strongest side for a long time so I can't see them causing them any problems whatsoever.
Then onto the USA. This team looks the real deal right now. 2018 was their breakthrough year and the players improved so mich with the MLR. I feel that this team is very close to making it to tier 1, just a matter of when not if now. I really hope they beat Argentina XV well next week to prove a point that they need to be in a higher competition. Put them in the rugby championship or something, just give them a higher level of competition!!

Predicted final table:
1. USA
2. Argentina XV
3. Uruguay
4. Brazil (I'll jump on the bandwagon with that one)
5. Canada (I really hope they price me wrong for the sake of the World Cup)
6. Chile (too many coach changes over the years and they don't even pick their best squad)

Love this competition!

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Contepomi coaches Argentina XV and they lose 33-36 to Brazil. Lobbe takes over and its a 54-3 loss for Brazil. A bit of an oversimplification, but my bias is confirmed. Contepomi is the last, best hope for a competitive Pro 14 and Heineken Cup!

This Argentina squad is much better than in previous years. The squad last year in Sudamérica B (where Brazil won) was very very average I thought

 

[Dai Perk]

As an American, it's nice to see us talked about this way, and I agree, MLR should help a lot. The 'hot take' for a while now has been, "With the growing awareness of concussions and all the bad press surrounding the NFL, rugby is sure to see proprtional increases," but that theory hasn't passed the eye test, for me, and when even the totally ridiculous 'Pro Bowl' gets mammoth ratings, it doesn't seem like the appetite for the NFL is waning at all.
(Cracks a beer and gets ready for my Pats to play in Tom Brady's NINTH SUPER BOWL.)

 

[Welshdragon2000]

As an American, it's nice to see us talked about this way, and I agree, MLR should help a lot. The 'hot take' for a while now has been, "With the growing awareness of concussions and all the bad press surrounding the NFL, rugby is sure to see proprtional increases," but that theory hasn't passed the eye test, for me, and when even the totally ridiculous 'Pro Bowl' gets mammoth ratings, it doesn't seem like the appetite for the NFL is waning at all.
(Cracks a beer and gets ready for my Pats to play in Tom Brady's NINTH SUPER BOWL.)

The USA are definitely my second team in rugby. They are my first team in 7s and I am very pleased to see them doing well. I have very close friends in America where I hope to live soon enough so I really hope rugby catches on over by you. When I tell my American friends that I play rugby, the reaction is always that it is an extremely tough sport and there's so many more injuries and concussions that American football. After all, NFL players have helmets. Interestingly, there's more concussions in 'football' than rugby. I put this down to players thinking they are invinsibke with their helmets and therefore they use their helmets to tackle. Playing rugby teaches you to take care in the tackle and makes you be careful with your head.

I wish I could share your enthusiasm of American football but I've just never got into it not properly watched it. From what I've seen though is that it is just too slow and too stop-start.

 

[Dai Perk]

Yeah!

(Side rant - MY PATRIOTS JUST WON THEIR 6th SUPER BOWL!!! 17 YEARS TO THE DAY!)

*takes a deep breath*

Anyway, the talk about concussions is really interesting, and stats can often highlight or obscure the reality... the sport that "causes the most concussions" is soccer, but let's face it, for every American football player, there are like 10,000 soccer players, so as always, stats can lie.

If you need a couch to crash on when and if you come to the States, let me know, we can hang out and watch rugby!

 

[Welshdragon2000]

Yeah!

(Side rant - MY PATRIOTS JUST WON THEIR 6th SUPER BOWL!!! 17 YEARS TO THE DAY!)

*takes a deep breath*

Anyway, the talk about concussions is really interesting, and stats can often highlight or obscure the reality... the sport that "causes the most concussions" is soccer, but let's face it, for every American football player, there are like 10,000 soccer players, so as always, stats can lie.

If you need a couch to crash on when and if you come to the States, let me know, we can hang out and watch rugby!

Much appreciated! Where about are you from in the US?

 

[Dai Perk]

We live in Boston, so we're all over the moon about another Patriots victory, it's been unbelievable!

 

[Welshdragon2000]

We live in Boston, so we're all over the moon about another Patriots victory, it's been unbelievable!

Ah okay, I don't tend to get to that part of America too often but if I'm in town I'll let you know