Sharks humble Jaguares

The Sharks were winners this morning in South Africa, humbling Argentina’s Super Rugby franchise 33-19 in Durban. It was a woeful performance from Los Jaguares, a team with more doubts than certainties thus far in the 2020 campaign.

The poor showing ends Los Jaguares’ three match tour of South Africa. The Argentine side return home with a 1-2 record and a 3-3 overall record for 2020.

The Sharks were far and away the better team today. Los Jaguares were not up to the challenge on the day and this was evident in the opening minutes.

The Sharks took four minutes to score the opening try of the game. A simple numbers game saw Hyron Andrews scoring as Los Jaguares’ defense was unable to mark the Sharks adequately. The 5-0 Sharks’ lead quickly became 12-0. In the ninth minute of play, No8 Sikumbuzo Notshe touched down.

Los Jaguares had their backs to the wall, but would hit-back. They scored next through Santiago Carreras. The outside back gathered a kick from Joaquín Díaz Bonilla to make it a 12-5 match near the end of the opening quarter.

The Sharks were playing the percentages well; this included smart tactical making. With it Curwin Bosch landed the first of three penalties in the 22nd minute. It was followed by the third Sharks’ try as rampaging center, Andre Esterhuizen went over.

Los Jaguares scored the final opening half points. Veteran fullback Joaquín Tuculet crossed for a 36th minute try. Díaz Bonilla added the extras to make the match a 22-12 half-time scoreline. The ten point difference meant that the South Americans were still in the game, although they would need to put in a different performance after the break.

Rather than chipping away at the Sharks’ lead, Los Jaguares found themselves further behind early on in the second half. Bosch landed two early penalties to give the home side a 16 point lead. It got worse for the Argentine side as Kerron van Vuuren crossed for the Sharks’ fourth try in the 51st minute.

Los Jaguares were down and out. They would score the game’s final points, albeit it came in the form of a consolation try. Scoring was replacement Sebastián Cancelliere who completed a brilliant try in what was an otherwise woeful second 40 minutes.

Los Jaguares play host to the Highlanders next weekend in Buenos Aires. Their flight home means that preparation time will be restricted. Nonetheless, on today’s showing there may be a very changed side for the round seven match.

 

SCORING

SHARKS
Try: Andrews(4′), Notshe (9′), Esterhuizen (27′), van Vuuren (52′)
Conversion: Bosch 2 (11′, 29′)
Penalty: Bosch 3 (23′, 44′, 48′)

JAGUARES
Try: Carreras (18′), Tuculet (36′), Cancelliere (76′)
Conversion: Diaz Bonilla (36′), Miotti (77′)

TEAMS

SHARKS
1 Ox Nche, 2 Kerron van Vuuren, 3 Thomas du Toit, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 5 Hyron Andrews, 6 James Venter, 7 Tyler Paul, 8 Sikumbuzo Notshe, 9 Louis Schreuder, 10 Curwin Bosch, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 13 Lukhanyo Am (capt.), 14 Sbu Nkosi, 15 Aphelele Fassi

Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 John-Hubert Meyer, 19 Le Roux Roets, 20 Henco Venter, 21 Sanele Nohamba, 22 Jeremy Ward, 23 Madosh Tambwe

JAGUARES
1 Mayco Vivas, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Joel Sclavi, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Tomás Lezana, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente (capt.), 13 Matías Moroni, 14 Santiago Carreras, 15 Joaquín Tuculet

Replacements: 16 Santiago Socino, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Sebastián Cancelliere, 22 Domingo Miotti, 23 Santiago Chocobares