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Los Jaguares completed a second consecutive home win today, defeating the Blues 23-19. The Argentine side were on top for the most part but were forced to hold out the Blues in the final minutes.
The win was by three tries to one with the Blues try being highly fortunate with a piece of bad luck for Los Jaguares ultimately setting up a thrilling finish in Buenos Aires.
Prior to the bounce of the ball favoring Dalton Papalii Los Jaguares were cruising to victory leading by three tries to zero. The score saw the Argentine side miss out on a bonus point though the win itself was based on strong defense as multiple raids from the Blues had been held back during the match.
Leading the way was flanker Marcos Kremer who made 20 tackles. Both former captain Pablo Matera and Guido Petti were also heavily involved, making 16 tackles each.
Early on the match was tightly fought. Neither side would give the other any opportunities and this resulted in penalty opportunities at goal. Otere Black and Joaquín Díaz Bonilla would exchange penalties on two occasions before Black would put the Blues 9-6 up after 32 minutes.
The match needed some spark and it would come from winger Ramiro Moyano. The Tucumán speedster scored a solo try, spotting a lack of cover defense to out-sprint All Blacks prop Of a Tuungafasi to score. Díaz Bonilla’s unsuccessful conversion meant Los Jaguares held an 11-9 had time lead.
In the second half the Blues would look like scoring. Yet despite being camped meters from Los Jaguares’ tryline for minutes the men from Auckland would be denied. A given try was subsequently disallowed with it evidently having been held up.
Points would be restricted to the boot of Black which would not see the Blues awarded adequately for their period of dominance. Los Jaguares would indeed make them pay as Moyano ran in a second try before the forwards scored a rolling-maul try that had began at the 22.
A 50% return at goal from Díaz Bonilla was points not taken and this would restrict the three tries to zero lead to 23-12. With replacements Santiago González Iglesias and Martín Landajo coughing up ball one after the other Dalton Papalii ran in a try to set up a possible late defeat for the hosts.
The scrum would safe the match to see Los Jaguares having a 2-1 record after three rounds of the 2019 Super Rugby season. The side will have no time to celebrate as they depart for South Africa tomorrow. Agustín Creevy may miss out due to him having been forced off injured in the 19th minute.
Attendance: 8,722
SCORING
JAGUARES
Try: Moyano (2), Montoya
Conversion: Díaz Bonilla
Penalty: Díaz Bonilla (2)
Yellow Card: Lavanini
BLUES
Try: Papalii
Conversion: Black
Penalty: Black (4)
JAGUARES
15 Juan Cruz Mallía, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matías Moroni, 12 Matías Orlando (capt.), 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Agustín Creevy, 1 Mayco Vivas
Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Rodrigo Bruni, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Santiago González Iglesias, 23 Joaquín Tuculet
AUCKLAND BLUES
15 Melani Nanai, 14 Tanielu Tele’a, 13 TJ Faiane, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Otere Black, 9 Augustine Pulu, 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Dalton Papalii, 6 Tom Robinson, 5 Josh Goodhue, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (capt.), 3 Ofa Tuungafasi, 2 James Parsons, 1 Alex Hodgman
Replacements: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Karl Tu’inukuafe, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Matt Matich, 21 Jonathan Ruru, 22 Harry Plummer, 23 Sonny Bill Williams
