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Los Jaguares outplayed the Lions in Final Super Rugby Warm-up today in Johannesburg. In what was the second of two pre-season matches for the Argentine Super Rugby franchise the Buenos Aires based outfit had the better of play running-out 49-28 winners.
The result puts the Jaguares’ campaign back on track after an underwhelming performance against the Stormers in the heat last weekend. Now the Argentine side can concentrate in great confidence on debuting against the Cheetahs.
Against the Lions Los Jaguares’ ran in seven tries, demonstrating great width and cohesion. It was a performance from a team that genuinely appeared to have been together for much longer than six weeks.
The South Americans started well with an early try to left winger Emiliano Bofffelli who went over from a set move from a scrum. Nicolás Sánchez added the conversion, his first of six for the match.
The Lions hit back through prop Corne Fourie and with Marnitz Boshoff’s conversion the scores were tied. It would be the only time of the match that Los Jaguares’ did not lead. The Argentine side responded through Santiago Cordero who with space to run left the Lions defenders in his wake as he went over. 14-7 became 21-7 shortly thereafter with inside center Jerónimo de la Fuente scoring his first of three tries.
Following a series of half time substitutions the South Americans scored for the fourth time. Replacement scrum half Gonzalo Bertranou was on hand to finish off a break from de La Fuente. His positive contribution is likely to see him utilized for higher honors in 2016. Also impressing from the bench was Facundo Isa who was arguably the best forward of the match.
Two tries from De la Fuente and a penalty try completed the scoring for the visitors while the Lions capitalized on a two man advantage to close the gap. Both Javier Ortega Desio and Matías Orlando were yellow carded which saw the Lions lifting their game.
Late tries from Harold Vorster, Ruan Ackermann and MB Lusaseni saw the Lions finishing with greater respectability. Los Jaguares will need to avoid losing players to yellow cards to ensure they give themselves the best chances for victory.
Scorers
Lions
Try: Fourie, Vorster, Ackermann, Lusaseni
Conversion: Boschoff (4)
Jaguares
Try: Boffelli, Cordero, de La Fuente (3), Bertranou, Penalty Try
Conversion: Sánchez (6), González Iglesias
Lions
1 Corne Fourie, 2 Armand van der Merwe, 3 Pieter Scholtz, 4 Andries Ferreira, 5 MB Lusaseni, 6 Stephan De Wit, 7 Cyle Brink, 8 Ruan Ackermann, 9 Dillon Smit, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 11 Anthony Volmink, 12 Harold Vorster, 13 Stokkies Hanekom, 14 Koch Marx, 15 JW Bell.
Reserves: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Jacques van Rooyen, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Bobby de Wee, 21 Martin Muller, 22 Ramone Smuels, 23 Fabian Booysen, 24 Ruaan Lerm, 25 Jaco van der Walt, 26 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 27 Jacques Nel, 28 Ashlon Davids, 29 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 30 Ricky Schroeder, 31 Selom Gavor
Jaguares
1 Lucas Noguera Paz, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Santiago Cordero, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 15 Joaquín Tuculet
Reserves: Santiago García Botta, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Matías Alemanno, Facundo Isa, Santiago González Iglesias, Felipe Ezcurra, Julián Montoya, Felipe Arregui, Gonzalo Bertranou, Rodrigo Báez and Joaquín Paz
