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Los Jaguares will have a bye round this coming weekend. Their next match is to be a round seven fixture at home against the Chiefs on Saturday March 30. Preparation for the fixture is underway and Gonzalo Quesada has his side training with reinforcements.
Ruled out of facing the Chiefs are Martín Landajo and Bautista Delguy. Both players were injured in this past Saturday’s away defeat against the Stormers. The loss of Landajo sees Quesada without two of his three scrum-halves.
Ruled out for the season is Gonzalo Bertranou while Landajo is to be sidelined for 40 days. The Harlequins bound no 9 will be considered again for round 12 when Los Jaguares are at home against the Stormers on May 04.
Until then Tomás Cubelli is be be joined by Felipe Ezcurra as the specialist scrum-halves on the roster. Ezcurra makes the step-up from the Argentina XV, doing so after an impressive campaign which saw him named in the ARN Dream Team.
Ezcurra has previously been a Jaguar but with Bertranou preferred he was unable to establish himself in the roster. This saw him playing regularly for the Argentina XV and also having a stint in England with the Leicester Tigers as a medical joker.
In addition to Ezcurra Quesada welcomes Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro to training this week. The veteran prop is yet to play this season. His last rugby match was against Australia in the Rugby Championship in October.
The fit-again Tetaz Chaparro boosts the front-row options and coincides with the confirmation that fellow loose head Jaguar Santiago García Botta is to leave Argentina to play in England later this year.
Also on the come back trail are Emiliano Boffelli, Marcos Kremer, Tomás Lavanini, Matías Orlando, and captain Jerónimo de la Fuente. All five are recovering from injury and are presently on target to face the Chiefs on March 30.
One player ruled out of the match is Agustín Creevy. The recovery time for the former captain remains unspecified though he is expected back at a similar time to Landajo.
Finally there will be no further matches this season for Bautista Delguy. The speedster’s campaign is over and he is now to be in a race against time to be fit for international duty. Without him Los Jaguares will need to look to the Argentina XV for further reinforcement while Los Pumas will be in contact with the likes of Santiago Cordero, and Juan Imhoff.
