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In week 12 of the 2019 Super Rugby season Los Jaguares are at home against the Stormers. The match will give the Buenos Aires based team an opportunity for redemption for their away defeat in Cape Town.
Gonzalo Quesada has made two changes from the side that defeated the Brumbies last weekend. Both comes on the wings with the fit-again Matías Moroni, and Ramiro Moyano straight back into the side in place of Sebastián Cancelliere, and Santiago Carreras. Cancelliere will feature from the bench while Carreras is recovering from playing for the Argentina XV on Wednesday.
Although Cancelliere’s fine performance against the Brumbies does not see him starting it does he in in the 23 with Juan Cruz Mallía missing out. The other change to the replacements sees Lucio Sordoni preferred to Enrique Pieretto. Should Sordoni receive game time he will be making his Super Rugby debut.
The Stormers have gone for five changes to their forwards, and one in the backs. The one change to the backline sees Dan Kriel getting a start ahead of incumbent Springboks inside center Damian de Allende.
In the forwards a powerful front-row sees Steven Kitshoff captaining the side from loose head. He is to be joined by Bongi Mbonambi, and Wilco Louw. Eben Etzebeth returns to start in the second-row though the pack is below full-strength with Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Siya Kolisi not involved.
There are some key match-ups to pay careful attention to. They include the colossal tussle between Eben Etzebeth and Tomás Lavanini; Matías Moroni against Dillyn Leyds; and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro playing opposite Wilco Louw.
Los Jaguares and the Stormers have met on five prior occasions in Super Rugby. The first three times all saw the Stormers claiming victory. The first match was a low scoring 13-8 match in Buenos Aires in 2016. The two other matches were both in Cape Town with the Stormers winning 32-25 in round two of 2017 and 28-20 in round one of 2018.
In 2018 Los Jaguares got their first win over the Stormers, doing so by 25-14 victory in Buenos Aires. The most recent fixture was earlier this season with the Stormers winning 35-8 in Cape Town. That performance was the worst of the Quesada tenure and unlikely to be repeated.
The Stormers have past results in their favor but indications are that Los Jaguares will come out as the winners. Playing a home, not having had to travel, not resting big name players, and overall form suggest a Jaguares win by 7 points.
TEAMS
JAGUARES
15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Matías Moroni, 13 Matías Orlando, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (Capt.), 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Domingo Miotti, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 8 Tomás Lezana, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Rodrigo Bruni, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Felipe Ezcurra, 22 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 23 Sebastián Cancelliere
STORMERS
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Kobus van Dyk, 7 Cobus Wiese, 6 Jaco Coetzee, 5 JD Schickerling , 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff (capt.)
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Johan du Toit, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Justin Phillips, 22 Damian de Allende, 23 Seabelo Senatla
Date: Saturday, May 04
Kick-Off: 4:40pm (local)
Venue: Estadio Vélez Sarsfield
Referee: AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Santiago Borsani (Argentina)
