AMERICAS
Argentina got smashed by the Springboks this past weekend, but there is plenty going on besides the current misery of the preeminent team of the Americas. The MLR draft happened last week it so transfers season is now open. The only major news is that DC Old Glory co-captain Mungo Mason will not return for a third season in the nation’s capital he will be going to take up a spot at Oxford University. His loss is a big blow to DC they have already lost Ciaran Hearn to retirement and Jason Robertson to Narbonne, losing a highly rated member of the forward pack is going to be a big blow. The pain does not end there scrum-half Dany Tusitala is off-contract and is rumored to be a target of the new Moana Pasifika franchise.
Canadian Tyler Duguid has resigned from french club Montpellier, the age-grade standout is yet to make his test debut, but following a strong first season, that test cap is just a matter of time.
News from the 7s circuit! Mexico City will be hosting the three-day Rugby America’s North (RAN) tournament from February 11th to 13th. This tournament will double as a qualifier for the 2022 Centro Caribe Games in 2022, RWC Sevens and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The winner will join Canada in the commonwealth games being held in Birmingham England.
Southern Hemisphere
The biggest news of the week is almost certainly, once again Rassie Erasmus’s he is facing a World Rugby Tribunal for releasing a 61-minute video that criticized the referee of the first Lion’s test, Nick Berry. While Erasmus had a point with a lot of his criticism, it was an unsubtle and heavy-handed attempt to influence the referee to favor his Springboks. In Rugby referees are respected, you do not catch players or coaches hurling abuse at officials as you do in other sports. It is safe to say that Erasmus broke one of the first lessons he was taught perhaps before he even stepped on a rugby pitch. It is likely that World Rugby will deal with his antics harshly, for me it is an open and shut case it does not matter if he was right or wrong in his criticism the fact he did it in such a public fashion makes it unacceptable. Whatever punishment comes his way is well earned.
In some good news on the international stage, the Rugby Championship has been relocated to Queensland Australia and will take place with a delay of an undetermined amount of time. COVID is of course the complicating factor in all this.
There is plenty of good news for followers of Southern Hemisphere followers a new format for Super Rugby has been reportedly been agreed upon by Rugby South Africa, Rugby Australia, and New Zealand Rugby. The agreement is for 14 rounds with all 12 teams playing each other once, with an additional three round-robin matches. There is a slight hang-up on how those three round-robin games will be determined. There are three options, one is to have the games determined randomly. Another is to make them all derbies/ rivalry games. While the final option is to develop some kind of formula to determine those matches, nobody is quite sure how the formula will work but it is certain that the two New Franchises will play each other twice. All the powers at be are attempting to be cynical, they want to make their teams as competitive as possible by having the format favor their respective teams. The best option is to just generate the fixtures randomly and get on with it, the governing body’s game is getting very tiresome. If your respective teams are truly the best then there would be no need for their paranoia.
A word on the two new Super Rugby Franchise’s. There is not much news on the Fiji Dura or the Moana Pasifika, what little information we have is as follows. The Director of rugby for the Moana Pasifika is likely to be former All Black center Aron Maguer, who is of Samoan and Cook Island descent. His assistant is rumored to be Filo Tiatia, who is Samoan, the rest of the coaching ticket is rumors at this point. There is no news on the potential squad for the Moana Pasifika, the only news is that they are having trouble recruiting second rows. The Fiji Dura on the other hand is likely to be recruiting a foreign coach right now the candidates are myriad and somewhat outlandish. We do however know that the coach will have to work closely with current Fiji coach Vern Cotter, making anyone who worked with him previously a potential option. In terms of players, there is rumored to be interest from Fijians playing in Europe and from stars from the 7s program, but there is no official word yet on what the playing group will look like. There is lots of public goodwill from the rugby world, these two franchises can help the pacific Islands immensely if they are even moderately successful, if these two franchises are successful it will be one of the greatest stories in the sporting world.
Northern Hemisphere
There is less going on in Europe at the moment, though with the impending start to the season there are a few transfers to discuss. Fijian lock Leone Nakarawa has signed with Toulon after a move with Ulster fell through due to a failed medical. Nakarawa will form one of the more intriguing second-row pairings in recent years, he will in all likelihood be paired with South African enforcer Eben Etzebeth. Their skill sets complement each other nicely, Etzebeth is extremely powerful and aggressive in contact, while Nakarawa brings more ball skills and athleticism to the table, line-out brains are a potential issue but it is likely that the Toulon lineout will be run by Charles Ollivon. It's not like Nakarawa and Etzebeth lack experience, it's just they have never been the designated line-out callers for their teams Lood De Jaer takes that role with South Africa and Tevita Cavubati took that role with Fiji. In the case of Etzebeth it's notable how he and Mostert struggled against the Lions and improved dramatically when Lood De Jager came into the game and dedicated proceedings at the lineout.
There is also a rumored switch for South African wing Cheslin Kolbe he is rumored to be to ditching current top 14 champions Toulouse for a move to Toulon. Kolbe while diminutive, is one of the most entertaining players in world rugby, his speed and footwork are fantastic. He also brings an almost unheard-of versatility to the field able to play all the backline positions at a professional level, which is very rare and extremely impressive. He will probably play in the back three as that is his preferred set of positions, I worry that he and Anthony Villiers, another diminutive winger present easy targets for contestable kicks. However, Kolbe has proved me and countless others wrong on numberless occasions, here’s to hoping that he does once again.
Another South African wing on the move is Courtnall Skosan, he will be joining Northampton Saints in England. The 30-year-old is coming from the Sigma Lions and will bring pace and a wonderfully balanced skillset to the Saint’s back three. It will be interesting to see where he fits into the Saint’s back three, which already boasts Tom Collins, England international George Furbank, Josh Gillespie, Ollie Sleightholm, Samoan international Ashee Tuala, and the MAMMOTH Taqele Niyaravoro.
London Irish have signed two props, Jamie Dever and Ryan Bower, on short terms deals. They are a bit light on front row options and in a position where injuries are frequent, it makes sense to bring in some stop-gap options to boost numbers. Jamie Dever came over from MLR (Major League Rugby), where he had stints with DC Old Glory, San Diego Legion, and Huston SaberCats. Ryan Bower comes fresh off stints with Leicester Tigers and Worcester Warriors. At 28 and 30 respectively Dever and Bower offer experienced injury cover options; front row signings are rarely earth-shattering, unfortunately.
On the league news, the new United Rugby Championship will be in its first season this year, it is a combination of the old Pro 14 teams and the South African rugby super rugby franchises. The league has recently had to defend itself from criticism following a delay in the release of its fixture schedule. Like most things, it is being complicated by COVID, there needs to be some patience shown, the organizers have to work with the governments of Italy, Ireland, Wales, and South Africa. Sorting out the mess of quarantine requirements and travel restrictions is going to take some time.
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