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Los Jaguares’ historic home Semi Final will take place in Buenos Aires on Friday. The Argentine Super Rugby franchise will be up against Australian side the Brumbies. Great anticipation for the occasion has seen a high demand for tickets with a sell-out crowd expected at Vélez Sarsfield.
Los Jaguares Head Coach Gonzalo Quesada has made just the one change from the Quarter Final. It comes at flanker with Tomás Lezana starting place of Marcos Kremer.
There is one notable alteration on the bench with Ramiro Moyano back from injury to be named as the replacement outside back. He takes over from rookie Santiago Carreras.
The Brumbies have also gone for just the one change from their Quarter Final victory last weekend. It comes at the back of the scrum with Lachlan McCaffrey named to start in place of the injured Peter Samu.
The match has some interesting head-to-head match-ups. Among them is at scrum-half where former Brumbies starting no9 Tomás Cubelli will play opposite Joe Powell.
The six players named to start in the front-rows are all expected to go to RWC 2019. Scott Sio, Folau Fainga’a, and Allan Alaalatoa will be joined by Rory Arnold, and Sam Carter in the tight-five. In order to win the Semi Final Los Jaguares must counter this formidable unit.
The match is to be the fourth between the teams. The first saw the Brumbies winning 39-17 in Buenos Aires in 2017 with the Argentine side then winning the second 25-20 in Canberra in 2018. The third fixture was earlier this season with Los Jaguares winning 20-15, also in Buenos Aires.
Following the Quarter Finals the Brumbies flew from Australia to Argentina while Los Jaguares recovered. This differential combined with overall form sees Los Jaguares being the favorites. The home side will go into the Semi Final as favorites to win by 9 points.
TEAMS
JAGUARES
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Tomás Lezana, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Matías Moroni, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (capt.), 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Emiliano Boffelli
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Marcos Kremer, 20 Francisco Gorrisen, 21 Felipe Ezcurra, 22 Domingo Miotti, 23 Ramiro Moyano
BRUMBIES
1 Scott Sio, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 4 Rory Arnold, 5 Sam Carter, 6 Rob Valetini, 7 Tom Cusack, 8 Lachlan McCaffrey, 9 Joe Powell, 10 Christian Leali’ifano (capt.), 11 Toni Pulu, 12 Ira Simone, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 14 Henry Speight, 15 Tom Banks
Replacements: 16 Connal McInerney, 17 James Slipper, 18 Leslie Leuluaialii-Makin, 19 Darcy Swain, 20 Murray Douglas, 21 Jerome Brown, 22 Matt Lucas, 23 Tom Wright
Date: Friday, June 29
Kick-Off: 7:05pm (Local)
Venue: Vélez Satsfield, Buenos Aires
Referee: Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
Assistant Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
TMO: Santiago Borsani (Argentina)
