The Americas Rugby Championship, often informally called the Americas' Six Nations, is an annual international rugby tournament between six North and South American nations: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States and Uruguay.
The inaugural Americas Rugby Championship (organised by World Rugby) was in 2009, when national, regional and development teams from North and South America competed for the title. However, in 2015, it was announced that from 2016, the competition will re-form under the guidance of the Americas Rugby Association and the respective unions, to provide Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United States, and Uruguay with five additional rankings tests annually. The tournament, described by the organizers as the 'inaugural' edition of the 'new' tournament, is based on the structure of the European Six Nations Championship, coinciding with each other in February and March of each year. The tournament will be the first competitive tournament to be held across the Sudamérica-RAN region since the PARA Pan American Championship that was ceased in 2003. While the tournament is no longer organized by World Rugby, they will continue to support the tournament and have granted all matches test match status, with caps awarded for every match, though matches including the Argentina XV will not affect the World Rugby Rankings.
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History
First edition
Originally formed in 2009 by World Rugby (then known as the International Rugby Board) to replace the North America 4 Series, was created to give the newly formed Canadian regions more competitive matches against strong opposition from the second teams of the United States and Argentina. The winner of the inaugural Canadian Rugby Championship, BC Bears, went onto compete on the international stage, playing the winner of the international semi-final match between USA Select XV and Argentina Jaguars. The Argentina Jaguars defeated the BC Bears 35-11 in the final to capture the tournament's first title.
Second and third editions
In 2010, the tournament was cut from 6 to 4 teams, scrapping the Canadian Division part of the tournament to create a solely international based tournament for development sides. The USA Select XV and Argentina Jaguars were joined by the second team from Tonga, and a Canada Selects side made up of the top players in the 2010 CRC season. Each team played each other once in a round-robin format, gaining 4 points for a win, with the team on the most points at the end winning the title.
The tournament returned in 2012, haven not taken place in 2011 due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The tournament kept the same format as 2010, however the national side of Uruguay joined the tournament replacing Tonga A, though in 2014, Uruguay sent their second team Charrúas XV. Argentina Jaguars went onto win every tournament between 2012 and 2014.
Current edition
The tournament was not held in 2015 because of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. In 2016, the tournament was relaunched and expanded to six teams with the inclusion of Brazil and Chile. Unlike the previous single-site tournament featuring lesser sides, the new tournament will be held in February and March, concurrently with the European Six Nations Championship. Like the European championship, teams will play both home and away, whereas players from European clubs will be available.
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Format
Played annually, the format of the Championship is simple: each team plays every other team once in a round-robin format, making for a total of 15 matches played across the tournament. For each win, a team picks up 4 points and 2 for a draw. The team with the most points at the end wins the title. Unlike previous ARC', overseas based players are available for selection, while Argentina will mainly only select provincial and domestic players that are not part of their Super Rugby Jaguares side.
Teams
Current teams
- Argentina XV
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- United States
- Uruguay
Past teams
- BC Bears: 2009
- Ontario Blues: 2009
- Prairie Wolf Pack: 2009
- The Rock: 2009
- Tonga A: 2010
- Argentina Jaguars: 2009-2014
- USA Selects 2009-2014
- Canada A: 2009-2014
Previous winners
Past results
All-time results table
Updated to after 2016 Americas Rugby Championship
Results by nation
Updated to after 2016 Americas Rugby Championship
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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