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With the summer coming to a close in the south it is time for the start of a new Super Rugby season. The 2018 edition gets underway this weekend with two matches. Both games are to be played in South Africa with Los Jaguares being the one foreign side involved.
Los Jaguares are into their third year of Super Rugby. In both 2016 and 2017 the team showed promise but was plagued by inconsistency, both at home and on the road.
As was the case in both prior seasons the opening rounds see Los Jaguares playing in South Africa. Changes for this year, however, see a new coaching regime. Legendary Pumas hooker Mario Ledesma is now at the helm. He has brought with him extensive experience coaching in Australia and France and was among the leading hookers in the Top 14 as a player from 2001-2011.
Ledesma’s first assignment is the Stormers. The Cape Town based franchise enters the new season without second-rower Eben Etzebeth and Pieter Du Toit. Both Springboks are injured at present.
Meanwhile Stormers Head Coach Robbie Fleck has included four players with no prior experience for the team. Set to make their debuts are Carlu Sadie, George Whitehead and Springboks JJ Engelbrecht and Raymond Rhule.
Of them Rhule will start the match with the other three named as replacements. Rhule fellow Springboks winger Dillyn Leyds and South African 7’s star Seabelo Senatla in the back-three.
Additional Springboks in the side include center Damian de Allende, flankers Nizaam Carr and Siya Kolisi, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, and props Wilco Louw and Steven Kitshoff. Kolisi will captain the side opposite Pablo Matera.
Los Jaguares have named a side with 13 players carrying Rugby Championship experience. Matera is joined y Javier Ortega Desio and Tomás Lezana in the back-row. This sees Kremer not starting, though injury concerns to Guido Petti factored in. Both Kremer and Petti are to be replacements.
Additional selection points of note see Martín Landajo dropped, with Gonzalo Bertranou instead starting at scrum-half. The inside center position has gone to neither Juan Martín Hernández or Santiago González Iglesias but, rather, Bautista Ezcurra. This while Jerónimo de la Fuente remains in Argentina recovering from injury.
Up front Ledesma has named Felipe Arregui, Agustín Creevy and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro to start. They are to be under immense pressure from Mbonambi, Louw and Kitshoff.
The match is to be there third encounter between the Stormers and Jaguares. The Stormers ran out winners in both of the previous matches. In 2016 Los Jaguares lost 13-8 in Buenos Aires while last year the Stormers won 32-25 in Cape Town. The home side enter Saturday’s match as favorites.
STORMERS
1 Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi, 3 Wilco Louw, 4 Chris van Zyl, 5 JD Schickerling, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 7 Cobus Wiese, 8 Nizaam Carr, 9 Dwealdt Duvenage, 10 Damian Willense, 11 Raymond Rhule, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 EW Viljoen, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 15 Dillyn Leyds
Replacements: 16 Ramone Samuels, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Jan de Klerk, 20 Kobus van Dyk, 21 Justin Phillips, 22 George Whitehead, 23 JJ Engelbrecht
JAGUARES
1 Felipe Arregui, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 4 Matías Alemanno, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera (capt.), 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 8 Tomás Lezana, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Ramiro Moyano, 15 Joaquín Tuculet
Replacements: 16 Javier Díaz, 17 Julián Montoya, 18 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Marcos Kremer, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Juan Martín Hernández, 23 Bautista Delguy
Date: Saturday, February 17
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Kickoff: 3:05pm local (10:05pm Argentina)
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa_
Assistants: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Egon Seconds (South Africa)
TMO: Christie du Preez (South Africa)
