Súper Liga Americana de Rugby / Súper Rugby Américas
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The Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) has been suspended until further notice.
https://www.slar.rugby/la-superliga-americana-de-rugby-se-pospone-hasta-nuevo-aviso-11?nid=43
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The Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) has been suspended until 2021. The inaugural season began on March 04 with Peñarol vs Selknam and ended on March 14 following Selknam vs Ceibos. The season was limited to just three league matches due to COVID-19. Board meetings on Monday involving representatives from Ceibos (Argentina), Corinthians (Brazil), Olímpia Lions (Paraguay), Peñarol (Uruguay) and Selknam (Chile). Together the decision to suspended the 2020 season was made. The regular season was set to run until May 16 with Selknam vs Corinthians being the final fixture. From there the competition was to have the Semi Finals and the Challenge Trophy. The latter was to involve Los Cafeteros Pro, making Colombia’s debut in professional rugby. los Cafeteros Pro will now be in the plans for the 2021 SLAR season. The competition is to be scheduled to begin in March 2021. There are additional questions as to the make-up of what will be the second year of SLAR. Nacional (Uruguay) are one such instance of a team that may join the league.
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Just after Sudamerica Rugby started advertising the 2021 season, there's a looming lawsuit affecting this competition.
According to reports in the media, the Argentinian union (UAR) has, or is planning to, dissolve the Argentinian club that participated in the competition last year (Ceibos) in favour of the Jaguares.
Article in Spanish:
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@Kiap From what I understand from the South American sites and social media that I follow (my Spanish isn't great), they're using a draft system to ensure that all participating teams have enough players of reasonably quality. Not sure, but this may be in addition to "normal signings". Again, from what I understand, as a result of this draft, a lot of Argentinian players will play for teams from the other countries. I think more than half of the players of the new Colombian team (Cafeteros) are Argentinian. They have signed two Ceibos players.
IIRC, the original plan was to expand the Super Liga in the next few years and to add another Argentinian team (Jaguares XV). I do not understand why they couldn't do that, this year, and add the Jaguares XV that is now replacing the Ceibos.
The weird thing is also that two of Ceibos' halfbacks have now signed with Paraguayan team Olímpia Lions. I understand that at least eight Ceibos' players are moving to other teams (and not to Jaguares XV).
Edited to add that this UAR decision may be a Buenos Aires v other cities move. Los Ceibos were based in Córdoba. I believe many of the players that are from Córdoba, Rosario, and Santa Fé may end up playing for the other franchises, while the Jaguares XV possibly sign mostly players from the Buenos Aires clubs.
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Súper Liga Americana de Rugby: 2023 update
This is an update about the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby, which doesn't get much media attention outside (South) America, and therefore no one knows much about it.This competition started in South America in 2020 with 5 franchises: Ceibos (Argentina), Selknam (Chile), Peñarol (Uruguay), Corinthians (Brazil) and Olimpia Lions (Paraguay). The start was unlucky, because during the second round, the season was suspended (and later cancelled) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The next year brought some changes. For the 2021 season, Córdoba based Ceibos were replaced by Buenos Aires based Jaguares XV (the development team of the Jaguares); the Corinthians were replaced by the Cobras and Colombian franchise Cafeteros Pro joined the competition. Unsurprisingly, the Jaguares XV won the competition that year unbeaten, because it still had a small number of players from the ex-Super Rugby squad Jaguares (Sebastián Cancelliere, Santiago Chocobares and Felipe Ezcurra) and other players that were picked up by European and MLR clubs the following year. Peñarol finished second, while Cafeteros finished at the bottom of the table, having lost all their games.
The second full season, 2022, saw Peñarol rise to the top, beating second-placed Selknam 24 - 13 in the Final. Ignacio Fernández Lobbe coached Jaguares XV (including new Highlander Martín Bogado) was placed third on the table after the regular season and lost the semi-final to Selknam. Remember that almost all Pumas players were - and still are - based in Europe.
Looking at the squads, it's good to mention that 2022 champions Peñarol had only two non-Uruguayan players (two Argentineans); Selknam had four foreign players (3 Argentineans and an Uruguayan); the Jaguares XV squad consisted only of Argentineans, while Colombian team Cafeteros had only 10 Colombian players; the other 20 were Argentinean. The Paraguayan Olimpia Lions squad also had many players from Argentina: 18; the other 20 were Paraguayan. Last-placed Cobras' players were almost all Brazilian; only three were foreigners (1 French; 2 Argentineans).
It's important to note the nationalities of the players, because the impact of the competition on the performance of the national teams cannot be underestimated. Peñarol 's success with almost exclusively Uruguayan players was followed by Uruguay qualifying for the 2023 RWC as Americas 1, after knocking over the USA. Similarly, runners-up Selknam 's good season with almost all their players being Chilean, was followed by Chile first beating Canada to book a spot in the Americas 2 decider against the USA and then scoring a narrow win over the USA to get the Americas 2 ticket to the RWC. Although both Uruguay and Chile have a few overseas based players, most of them are selected from their Súper Liga Americana team.
The 2023 season will see some further changes. Jaguares XV is leaving the competition and is replaced by the Pampas, based in San Isidro in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. The Olimpia Lions are replaced by the Yacare XV, again based in Asunción. Colombian team Cafeteros Pro leaves the competition after two seasons and is replaced by a North American team, the American Raptors. The Raptors participated previously as the Glendale Raptors, and then the Colorado Raptors, in the Major League Rugby, but withdrew from the competition after the 2020 season. There will also be a second Argentinean team: Dogos XV, which is based in Córdoba (so they are effectively the successors of the Ceibos). Initially, there would have been a Canadian team joining the competition - the Pacific Pride - but this is not going ahead for financial reasons (despite support from World Rugby), at least not in 2023.
Finally, due to a team from the USA entering the competition, the Súper Liga Americana de Rugby will continue under name of Súper Rugby Américas! Was this name picked to present it as the South American sibling of Super Rugby Pacific?
Súper Rugby Américas 2023 teams:- American Raptors (Glendale, Colorado, USA)
- Cobras (São Paulo, Brazil)
- Dogos XV (Córdoba, Argentina)
- Pampas (San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
- Peñarol (Montevideo, Uruguay)
- Selknam (Santiago, Chile)
- Yacare XV (Asunción, Paraguay)
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@Stargazer don't think including America and Canada is good for them. Way way too far to travel on small budgets but maybe they'll be touring.
More NZ Ireland model from the south Americans vs the 100% private model in MLR, which has announced a new team in Miami for next year also.
Rugby in south America is very strong at club level unfortunately it is very poor economically.
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@muddyriver The Raptors will start with 4 away games, so will probably be based somewhere in South America during that time. Then they have a bye, followed by 6 home games, and then another bye. Their regular season finishes with two more away games. SR Americas is considered a development competition despite the teams being professional and teams indeed have strong ties to the countries' national unions. Although their 2023 squad includes several experienced players, the Raptors are also considered a development team and it's not affiliated with USA Rugby, unlike the other teams competing in the MLR (the MLR is officially sanctioned by USA Rugby). Due to it's nature of development competition, SR Americas has quite a bit of (financial) support from World Rugby (via Sudamérica Rugby). I assume that support includes compensation for the extra travel costs.
The inclusion of North American teams is likely to only extend to developmental teams and WR's support will probably depend on their financial status. I'm not sure whether the inclusion of the Raptors is for this year only (as replacement of Cafeteros Pro, with which the Raptors have entered into a special partnership and the Raptors' squad includes at least 5 of that team's former players), as the initial purpose of the SLAR was to develop rugby in South America and the competition was to include two teams from each participating country (including Colombia) and to extend in future to more South American countries. The format of this competition doesn't look settled at all, yet.