Stormers down Jaguares in wet Cape Town

The Stormers downed Los Jaguares 17-7 earlier today in Cape Town. The match was the first between the sides in 2020 and was Los Jaguares’ first of three matches on their current tour to South Africa.

The Argentine side went for rotation for the contest, a decision made to have fresh legs for the matches against the Sharks and Bulls. With the Stormers being South Africa’s best team in 2020, only time will tell if it was prudent or not.

As it turned out, the Stormers defended well, although Los Jaguares may have been the winners and they had their first-choice players involved from the kick-off.

The Stormers won the first half 3-0. The only score from the opening half came from the boot of fly half Damian Willemse. The 13th minute penalty was followed by a yellow card to Frans Malherbe minutes later. The tight head prop was temporally suspended for contact made to the head when performing a tackle on Jaguares’ second-rower, Lucas Paulos.

The second-half started differently as a lost ball saw the Stormers capitalizing to score the game’s first try. Dotting down was scrum-half  Herschel Jantjies which, with the conversion, gave the home side a 10-7 lead.

Los Jaguares almost cancelled out the try in response when winger Sebastián Cancelliere was tackled into touch meters from the try line. Instead, the Stormers took advantage with Ruhan Nel touching down in the 53rd minute. Willemse converted to make it a 17-0 lead.

The Stormers were looking like retaining their perfect record of not conceding a point at home this season. It changes, however, as Rodrigo Bruni charged over from an attacking scrum. The 66th minute score was converted from near the touchline by Domingo Miotti.

Los Jaguares appeared to score a second two minutes later. However, it was cancelled by the officials after Bruni was deemed to be in-front of Cancelliere following an aerial challenge. With it the final score meant four competition points for the Stormers and zero for Los Jaguares.

Next up for Los Jaguares is a trip to Pretoria to face the Bulls on February 29. Meanwhile, the Stormers will play host to the Blues.

SCORING

STORMERS (17)
Try: Jantjies, Nel
Conversion: Willemse (2)
Penalty: Willemse
Yellow Card: Malherbe

JAGUARES (7)
Try: Bruni
Conversion: Miotti

TEAMS

STORMERS
1 Steven Kitshoff (capt.), 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 3 Frans Malherbe, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 5 JD Schickerling, 6 Jaco Coetzee, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Juarno Augustus, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 10 Damian Willemse, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 12 Jamie Roberts, 13 Ruhan Nel, 14 Sergeal Peterson, 15 Dillyn Leyds

Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Chris van Zyl, 20 Johan du Toit, 21 Ernst van Rhyn, 22 Godlen Masimia, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis

JAGUARES
1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Santiago Socino, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Matías Alemanno, 5 Lucas Paulos, 6 Francisco Gorrissen, 7 Tomás Lezana, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 9 Tomás Cubelli (capt.), 10 Domingo Miotti, 11 Sebastián Cancelliere, 12 Juan Cruz Mallía, 13 Santiago Chocobares, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Emiliano Boffelli

Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Marcos Kremer, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 23 Matías Moroni