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Los Jaguares’ four match tour to Oceania will wrap-up in Brisbane, Australia on Saturday. The Argentine side goes into the match with back-to-back wins over the Hurricanes, and Waratahs and now lead the South African conference.
The Reds are coached by former RWC champion with New Zealand, Brad Thorn. He has opted for six changes to his side to face Los Jaguares.
Up front there are two alterations with prop JP Smith returning from concussion, and Brandon Paenga-Amosa named to start the match at hooker.
Captaining the side last weekend was Izack Rodda, doing so in place of center Samu Kerevi. The former will not face Los Jaguares which sees an altered back-row named. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto moves to second-row, Angus Scott-Young to blindside flanker and veteran Scott Higginbotham starts at N8.
Kerevi returns to captain the side in the mid-field. Also returning to take part will be the fit-again parking of Chris Feauai-Sautia, and Filipo Daugunu. Meanwhile Bryce Hegarty moves to fullback, and Matt McGahan to fly half.
Goznalo Quesada continues with the rotation policy for Los Jaguares. This sees nine changes to the side from that which defeated the Waratahs in Sydney last weekend.
Up front an all-new front-row will start with Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, and Agustín Creevy both returning. Lucio Sordoni completes the unit making his starting debut for Los Jaguares.
In the second-row Tomás Lavanini will be joined by rookie Lucas Paulos. This sees Guido Petti moving to the side of the scrum to enable Marcos Kremer to have a reduced work-load due to his extremely busy season.
In the backs the Hindú club pair of Felipe Ezcurra, and Joaquín Díaz Bonilla start together in the halves. The mid-field sees changes with Matías Orlando moving from outside center, to captain the team in place of Jerónimo de la Fuente and inside center, while Matías Moroni will wear the 13 shirt.
In the back-three Ramiro Moyano, and rocker Santiago Carreras have been retained as the wingers while Juan Cruz Mallía will have his first match of the tour, starting at fullback.
There have been two prior matches between Los Jaguares and the Reds. The first match was a round five fixture in the 2017 Super Rugby season. Los Jaguares hosted and defeated the Reds 22-8 on that occasion. In game two the Reds were 18-7 winners, also in Buenos Aires.
The form of Los Jaguares, and ability to win in Australia places the Argentine side as the favorites to win on Saturday. They go into the match as favorites to win by 12 points.
TEAMS
REDS
1 JP Smith, 2 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Angus Blyth, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Angus Scott-Young, 7 Liam Wright, 8 Scott Higginbotham, 9 Tate McDermott, 10 Matt McGahan, 11 Filipo Daugunu, 12 Samu Kerevi (capt.), 13 Chris Feauai-Sautia, 14 Jock Campbell, 15 Bryce Hegarty.
Replacements: 16 Alex Mafi, 17 Ruan Smith, 18 Gav Luka, 19 Harry Hockings, 20 Adam Korczyk, 21 Scott Malolua, 22 Duncan Paia’aua, 23 Hamish Stewart
JAGUARES
1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 4 Lucas Paulos, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Guido Petti, 7 Tomás Lezana, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 12 Matías Orlando (capt.), 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Santiago Carreras, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 21 Pablo Matera, 22 Tomás Cubelli, 23 Jerónimo de la fuente
Date: Saturday, June 01
Kick-Off: 07:45am (Local), 06:45am (Argentina)
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Egon Seconds (South Africa), Paul Williams (New Zealand)
TMO: James Leckie (Australia)
