A few notes and updates from around the Americas Rugby Championship. Look for some new names to enter the fray for the North American teams as they fly south for the final two rounds. There were also a few newcomers to international rugby this past weekend, and a couple other interesting tidbits.

SQUAD CHANGES

Canada have said goodbye to Benoît Pifféro and Taylor Paris, who are headed back to France to rejoin their club sides. Look for Ray Barkwill and Eric Howard to be the two traveling hookers, while Conor Trainor is arriving to fill the gap left by Paris. Of course Trainor could also be used in the midfield, where he has been playing for Vannes, with an injury cloud hanging over Nick Blevins after coming off at half-time against the USA. Another name to look for is Brett Beukeboom, who should add much needed experience to the pack ahead of the Uruguay match this weekend.

The Eagles were always planning changes at this point. Impressive second row pair Nate Brakeley and Nick Civetta will both miss the trip south. Brakeley is headed back to New York with work commitments while Civetta has rejoined Newcastle Falcons. Dino Waldren and John Quill are returning to Ireland, and Ryan Matyas, who came off injured in the Canada game, wasn’t due to travel with the side anyway. Two players join from BYU as lock Matt Jensen returns and midfielder Calvin Whiting is set to make his debut. Demecus Beach and Olive Kilifi arrive to bolster the front row, and Hanco Germishuys comes in as a back row option. With Zack Test a long-term casualty. It’s not clear if another back has been added with both Luke Hume and uncapped Andrew Turner also struggling with injury.

VERSATILE FRONT ROW

Fair play to Brazil, who have had to use some interesting front row permutations over the last couple of games. Pedro Bengaló, who plays tighthead prop or lock for his club, spent time on the loosehead side in his debut against the Eagles. When Luiz Vieira came off injured in the 70th minute Bengaló moved back to the second row and reserve hooker Daniel Danielewicz actually came in to prop against Chris Baumann. By our reckoning Danielewicz has never played prop at test level before, at least not since before our records which date back to 2008.

In the game against Uruguay on the weekend Brazil found themselves in another odd spot with three tighthead props in the front row near the end of the game. Wilton Rebolo wore the no1 jersey after starting the previous two matches at no3, and Vitor Ancina came on as a replacement for Bengaló just before the hour mark. They ran into trouble in the 68th minute when Danielewicz was shown a yellow card. With reserve hooker Endy Willian already off injured, 19-year-old Matheus Rocha came on to make his test debut, packing down at tighthead. The veteran Ancina shifted to loosehead, and Rebolo moved the middle of the scrum, an unusual spot but not entirely alien having started in that position against Kenya last June. No thoughts whatsoever of asking for uncontested scrums.

NEWCOMERS

Matheus Rocha was one of six players to make their test debuts on Saturday including two teammates. Endy Willian was also on his first go, lasting only 11 minutes before departing, while Ariel Rodrigues replaced Robert Tenório on the wing for Brazil in the final moments of the match. Uruguay blooded a new second row in 20-year-old Lorenzo Surraco, who played the final quarter in Maldonado. Argentine-raised but Vancouver-born back row forward Lucas Albornoz came on as a replacement for Canada against the USA in Burnaby, where he plays his club rugby, and massive second row Siaosi Mahoni came on late in the game for the Eagles.

In all there have been 37 players who have won their first cap for their country during the first three rounds of the tournament: BRAZIL – Josh Reeves, De Wet van Niekerk (both vs Chile), Pedro Bengaló (vs USA), Endy Willian, Matheus Rocha, Ariel Rodrigues (all vs Uruguay). CANADA – Cole Keith, Conor Keys, Reegan O’Gorman, Matt Beukeboom, Ollie Nott, Robbie Povey, George Barton, Guiseppe du Toit (all vs Chile), Lucas Albornoz (vs USA). CHILE – Vittorio Lastra, Martín Mendoza, Gonzalo Martínez, Nicanor Machuca, Franco Velarde (all vs Brazil), Arturo Seeman (vs Canada). URUGUAY – Matías Benítez, Felipe Inciarte, Rodolfo Garese, Francisco Berchesi (all vs USA), Manuel Diana, Lucas Durán, Ignacio García (all vs Argentina XV), Lorenzo Surraco (vs Brazil). USA – Alex Maughan, Peter Malcolm, Matt Jensen, Ben Cima, Will Magie (all vs Uruguay), Spike Davis, Peter Tiberio (both vs Brazil), Siaosi Mahoni (vs Canada).

Uruguay, Brazil, and Chile all award caps vs the Argentina XV. Canada and the USA do not.

WELCOME BACK

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the spectrum is Chilean second row Nelson Calderón, who at 37 years old is the oldest man in the competition, just a bit older than Canadian hooker Ray Barkwill. Calderon was making his first appearance for Los Condores since May of 2012, an absence of nearly five years! Leave to Anthony Purpura to take it even further. The US Eagles prop made his test debut against Russia in June 2010 but had to wait until the first round of the ARC against Uruguay, closing in on seven years later, to win his second.

MOST CAPS

While we know Daniel Danielewicz and João Luiz da Ros are Brazil’s most capped players with over 40 each, but we’re not exactly sure how many more they have as our records only go back as far as 2008. Either way it’s unlikely they top Uruguay’s Diego Magno who now has 66 on his ledger. Of course there is one player even above that impressive total – the US Eagles all-time cap leader Todd Clever, who celebrated cap number 72 in the win over Canada.

100 WINS

Canada achieved their 100th test win in the match against Chile last weekend. It only took them 85 years and 246 games to get there. Of course there were none for 30 years between 1932 and 1962, and they didn’t get their first until defeating the USA 17-6 at Burnaby Lake in 1977. The 10th win wasn’t for another decade after that! Their best year was in 1998, when they won seven including all three over the Eagles while only losing twice, a shock loss in Hong Kong to a side composed largely of New Zealanders, and a convincing loss to Argentina in Buenos Aires.

BRING ON THE BEEF

New Eagles lock Siaosi ‘CC’ Mahoni is a hefty fellow indeed. He tips the scales in the neighborhood of 134kg (295lbs) which makes him probably the heaviest man in the competition. We say probably because we’re not sure exactly how much new Chilean prop Gonzalo Martinez weights, but it’s at least 130kg (285lbs). Canadian tighthead Matt Tierney is another big lad, listed at 131kg, or just a shade under 290lbs, and that’s after trimming some body fat while playing for Pau.

At 2.03m (6’8″) Mahoni is also the tallest man in the competition, a title he shares with two other players, fellow USA locks Matt Jensen and Nick Civetta. Two others are just behind at 2.01m (6’7″) – Argentina’s Ignacio Larrague and Canadian big man Liam Chisholm.

The bottom of the heap is reserved for halfbacks. Guillermo Lijtenstein (Uruguay, 1.69m), Juan Pablo Larenas (Chile, 1.69m), Juan Manuel Lescano (Argentina XV, 1.68m), and Jan Hasenlechner (Chile, 1.68m) are all about 5’6″ in the old imperial. At around 73kg (160lbs), Teros scrumhalf Santiago Arata is the lightest man in the competition with Lijtenstein, Larenas, Lescano, and USA’s Nate Augspurger all floating near the 75kg (165lbs) mark.