Super Rugby 2018 – Jaguares vs Lions Preview

Round six of Super Rugby 2018 takes place this weekend. Los Jaguares are to play at home, doing so against the Lions. The match is to be the second between the teams this season. In their prior outing the South Africans powered to a dominant victory. But playing in Argentina is an all-together different scenario.

For the match Los Jaguares Head Coach Mario Ledesma has made two changes. He has not gone for more despite his team coming off a dreadful performance against the Reds last weekend. The alterations see the return of Santiago García Botta for Felipe Arregui and Bautista Ezcurra for Santiago González Iglesias.

Ezcurra played club rugby last weekend for Hindú. The same is true of Jerónimo de la Fuente who will have the opportunity of playing his first Super Rugby match of 2018 this weekend. He has been named on the bench as has Ramiro Moyano who also returns from injury.

Pablo Matera will again captain the side from flanker. He is to be joined by the bulk of Marcos Kremer on the other side of the scrum. Specialist flanker, Javier Ortega Desio will play again at no 8.

The decision to use Kremer as a flanker gives Los Jaguares extra size and power in the forwards. This is further enforced by both Matías Alemanno and Tomás Lavanini being Ledesma’s preferred pair to lock the scrum. They do so with Guido Petti continuing to cover from the bench.

In the backs Gonzalo Bertranou continues to start with Martín Landajo still unwanted to start games by Ledesma. Another regular, 35-year-old, Juan Martín Hernández misses out through injury. Meanwhile Nicolás Sánchez, Emiliano Boffelli, Bautista Delguy and Joaquín Tuculet all hodl down their places.

The Lions go into the game with a vastly different line-up to that which defeated the Sunwolves last weekend. Head Coach Swys de Bruin has gone for ten changes, three of which are positional alterations.

Up front de Bruin had named an entirely new front-row. This includes replacing arguably the world’s best hooker today, Malcolm Marx with Robbie Coetzee. Ruan Dreyer and Jacques Van Rooyen take over from Jacobie Adriaanse and Dylan Smith as the starting props.

In the second-row Marvin Orie packs down with Franco Mostert. The latter of whom played out of position against the Sunwolves.

In the back-row Kwagga Smith moves from flanker to no 8 Len Massyn, with Robert Kruger and Cyle Brink named as the starting flankers.

In the backs Marco Jannsen van Vuren is back to start at scrum half. He takes over from Ross Cronje who is out through injury. He will form a halves partnership with Springbok Elton Jantjies.

Outside Jantjies will be Rohan Janse van Rensburg. He returns to the mid-field after having played out of position on the wing last weekend. Starting against the Jaguares on the wing will be Sylvian Mahuza.

While there will be no Creevy vs Marx battle there are to, nonetheless, be a number of interesting ones to look out for. Matías Orlando will need a strong afternoon against Lionel Mapoe as will Nicolás Sánchez against Elton Jantjies. Tomás Lavanini vs Franco Mostert looms as a clash of the titans.

The teams are now very familiar with each other. They have played each other twice in prior years and once already in 2018. Their first ever match took place in May 2016. The Lions were highly impressive in winning 52-24 in Johannesburg. Los Jaguares got the better of them in the reverse fixture, winning 34-22 in Buenos Aires.

In 2017 they would again split the results. Los Jaguares won 36-24 at home while the Lions held on to win 24-21 in Johannesburg. Last month the Lions won 47-27, again in South Africa. Los Jaguars now need a win this weekend to make it a 3-3 overall record.

Changes to the Lions will go a long way to aiding Los Jaguares’ changes. Having travelled across the south Atlantic Ocean is also going to complicated the Lions’ task. Despite performances in 2018 not going the way of Los Jaguares, they go into Saturday as the favorites.

JAGUARES
15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (Capt.), 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Matías Alemanno, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Santiago García Botta

Replacements: 16 Julián Montoua, 17 Felipe Arregui, 18 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Jerónimo De la Fuente, 23 Ramiro Moyano

LIONS
15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Sylvian Mahuza, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Robert Kruger, 6 Cyle Brink, 5 Franco Mostert (Capt.), 4 Marvin Orie, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Jacques Van Rooyen

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Len Massyn, 21 Dillon Smit, 22 Howard Mnisi, 23 Shaun Reynolds

Date: Saturday March 24
Venue: Estadio Vélez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires
Kick-off Time: 4:40pm
Referee: Jamie Nutbrown (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Pablo Deluca (Argentina), Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: Santiago Borsani (Argentina)