Americas Rugby Trophy Tournament Includes Brazil, Chile, Canada – October 16 to 26 in Brazil
An article on the Brazil Rugby Union site announced the Americas Rugby Trophy, a 3 country competition between Chile, Brazil and Canada. Canada will play Chile on Friday, October 21st and Brazil on Wednesday, October 26th. The announcement notes that the games are development in nature and that the matches will be basically “A” games and not capped.
Paul Tait, the editor of Americas Rugby News, tweeted that the decision to keep the games development was Canada’s, “Canada insisted that the matches be uncapped.” If that’s the case, then bravo, it’s the first correct strategic decision Rugby Canada has made in a while.
Canada need more Canada “A” level games to test a broader, and so far untapped, player base. The men’s XVs program has grown stale with the European pros ostracized and coach Kingsley Jones choosing from the same MLR pool. It’s time to test other players in the international arena without ranking points being at stake. Grady Bowd at #10 needs a start, not a token 10 minutes behind Peter Nelson. Second rows Frank and Donald Carson need Canada “A” minutes after proving themselves at the highest amateur level. Players from the Pacific Pride Academy, like flankers Zephyr Melnyk and Cody Nhanala, need to be given a shot to see if they’re ready now or need another year of development. Mike Moloney looked good at fullback for Canada West vs American Raptors, is he ready? Academy #10 Max Stewart needs 20 minutes off the bench at the “A” level to see where he stands. Prop Cali Martinez was drafted first round in MLR yet hasn’t had a sniff from Jones and the national team. There are too many examples to list but a consultation with the Academy/University coaches in the Coastal Cup, Phil Mack, Andy Evans, Curry Hitchborn, Scott Manning, would no doubt provide a list of on-form athletes who are ready for the challenge.
Since Rugby Canada haven’t organized any “Probable” vs “Possible” matches domestically, then Canada A matches will have to fill that void. This is a chance to breath some life into the program. Introducing Jamie Cudmore into the coaching team would be a smart move, even as a consultant coach. If indeed Rugby Canada did negotiate the development “A” level status then they need to follow it through correctly with their team selection.
I looked back on a previous article I had written on selection/development and this one from Oct 15 2019 still holds true, and looks more damning now that Canada missed out on the 2023 World Cup.
The question is will coach Kingsley Jones start off this four year cycle with a fresh approach, include a wider group, blood some new players or will he stick to his previous pattern of only trusting a core group. One statement he made in the latest Rugby Canada article doesn’t bode well for the future. He’s quoted saying, “Good news is we have an idea now of what a 2023 and 2027 squad could look like.” – how on earth can he know what the 2023 and 2027 squads could look like. There will be 100s of top prospects he’s hasn’t heard of yet who will be coming into their prime in four years, never mind in eight years. If he’s already building his core, trusted group now for 2023 (and 2027) it’s not a good sign and speaks to his attitude towards looking at a wider group of players and supporting the rugby development structures in Canada.
The Americas Rugby Championship was previously a development platform that included Canada, USA, Uruguay and Argentina. It was hosted in Langford as a 10 day tournament, it was great for Canadian development. That changed in 2015 when Rugby Canada agreed to a new World Rugby proposal that would expand the tournament to include Chile and Brazil and make the matches full tests in a home and away format. Brazil and Chile were the big winners on that decision, it wasn’t great for Canada, as we noted in a December 7 2015 article.
Who are the winners and losers in this tournament. The big winners will be Brazil and Chile who weren’t invited to the previous ARC tournament. World Rugby is no doubt putting a lot of money into this to pay for travel costs and the benefit for them is widening the scope of rugby in South America… For Langford rugby fans it’s a draw, as they lose the 10 day tournament in October but get two games in February…
Chile and Brazil both benefited from the new format introduced in 2016. Canada went from hosting a 10 day ARC development tournament in October in Langford pre-2015, through a period where they played ARC tests in February without their best overseas players, back to a development platform in October but now hosted in Brazil without USA, Uruguay and Argentina. During that period Canada dropped from 17th to 23rd, Chile rose from 28th to 21st, and Brazil rose from 37th to 27th.
Brazil welcomes Chile and Canada in October
from Brazil Rugby Union
The Brazilian Men’s Rugby XV Team will receive visits from Chile and Canada in October to compete in the new Americas Rugby Trophy, the Americas Cup, a tournament between the three countries.
The event will mark the reunion of the Brazilian fans with the men’s team, which has not played at home with open doors since the game with the Barbarians in 2019. Due to the pandemic, the only home match of XV’s team was in 2021, against Paraguay, for the World Cup Qualifiers, but behind closed doors.
The Americas Rugby Trophy will have a developmental character, as it will continue the construction of the Tupis for the 2023 season.
10/16 Brazil XV x Chile XV
10/21 Chile XV vs Canada XV
10/26 Brazil XV x Canada XV
The location of the matches, their times and broadcasts will be confirmed in the coming days.