SR Preview: Stormers vs Jaguares

In the fourth round of the 2020 Super Rugby season, Los Jaguares are on the road for the first time. The Argentine side is up against the in-form Stormers in Cape Town, South Africa. The fixture is to be the first of three matches for Los Jaguares over consecutive weekends in the country.

The Stormers go into the game with four changes from last weekend against the Lions. The South African Conference leaders has targeted the match against Los Jaguares to call-upon all of his cavalry. This sees Springboks Herschel Jantjies and Frans Malherbe both returning as two of the alterations.

Malherbe rakes over from Wilco Louw at tight head prop, forming a formidable combination with fellow Springboks front-rower Steven Kitshoff starting at loose head prop. The additional change to the pack sees JD Schickerling starting the match in the second-row.

In the backs Jantjies replaces Godlen Masimia, who drops to the bench. The alteration sees a 9-10 capped combination with Damian Willemse starting at fly half and there are plenty more big names players including Seabelo Senatla on the left wing and Wales’ Jamie Roberts at center. Moreover, up front is World Rugby’s 2019 Player of the Year, Pieter-Steph du Toit at flanker.

Los Jaguares’ Head Coach, Gonzalo Quesada has opted for rotations. His is for the first of three games in South Africa sees eight changes from the win last Saturday over the Reds. Three of the changes come in the front-row where Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Santiago Socino and Santiago Medrano replace Mayco Vivas, Julián Montoya and Lucio Sordoni.

In the second-row Matías Alemanno has his first start of the season as he takes over from Guido Petti to lock the scrum with Lucas Paulos. While in the back-row, Francisco Gorrissen joins Tomás Lezana and Rodrigo Bruni. This sees a formidable bench of forwards in the form of Vivas, Montoya, Joel Sclavi, Petti and Marcos Kremer.

In the backs Tomás Cubelli leads the captain from scrum-half, doing so with Felipe Ezcurra dropped for the tour. He partners the in-form Domingo Miotti, a player looking like having a tremendous test future ahead of him.

Matías Moroni drops to the bench with Juan Crúz Mallía and Santiago Chocobares join forces in the mid-field. The combination is unlike all prior center partnerships to haver played for Los Jaguares.

In the back-three Santiago Carreras drops out through rotation. This sees a start for Sebasti[an Cancelliere and Emiliano Boffelli reverts to fullback.

Los Jaguares and the Stormers have met on six 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, while 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. In 2019 the Stormers won 35-8 in Cape Town, while Gonzalo Quesada’s side were 30-25 later in the season in Buenos Aires.

The Stormers have won all matches thus far in 2020, while Los Jaguares have a 2-1 record. Arguably, the loss against the Hurricanes ought to have been a Jaguares’ win, regardless the Stormers are playing excellent rugby and with home advantage enter the game as favorites. ARN projects a Stormers win by 9 points.

 

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

Date: Saturday, February 22
Kick-Off: 3:05pm (Local), 10:05am (Rio de la Plata)
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa), Egon Seconds (South Africa)
TMO: Willie Vos (South Africa)