The Brumbies round out their two-match magical mystery tour of the Southern Hemisphere when they take on the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning and looking to make it three wins in a row.
After a massive win against the Stormers last week, the Brumbies have headed across the South Atlantic for an intriguing clash against a well-rested Jaguares side who are coming off their own successful tour of South Africa. They recorded a come from behind win over the Bulls in Pretoria and followed that up with a trouncing of the Sharks in Durban and racked up 50 points in the process.
This week’s venue is a place the Brumbies know well and having won here before, they will be full of confidence and looking to peg back the leaders in the Australian conference aided by the Rebels and Reds on a bye this round. But inconsistency has been a problem in 2019 so hopefully last weeks win has seen them turn the corner in that regard.
The Brumbies have made two changes to the starting side that won against the Stormers with the experienced James Slipper named at loosehead in place of Scott Sio who reverts to the bench. Matt Lucas gets the start at scrum half and he will need to be on his toes as he comes up against a player who knows the Brumbies inside out in Tomas Cubelli after he spent the 2016-17 seasons with them.
There are a few changes on the bench with hooker Connal McInerney flown to Argentina to take the place of Josh Mann-Rea who has suffered a serious knee injury. Irae Simone gets his chance in place of Wharenui Hawera.
The Jaguares have made a few changes from their last start win against the Sharks two weeks ago. The addition of the experienced Agustin Creevy from a rib injury will be crucial at hooker with the home side looking to use their big men and his game against Folau Fainga’a will be one to watch.
The backline for the hosts has been hit by injury in 2019 with the quartet of Matias Moroni, Joaquin Tuculet, Bautista Delguy and the dangerous Ramiro Moyano all unavailable to leave coach Gonzalo Quesada with a few headaches in trying to select a backline.
Key match up
Rory Arnold v. Guido Petti
Arnold had his best game of the season so far in the win over the Stormers where he monstered the maul and showed some outrageous skills to score from a charge down. He’ll need to bring those skills and more up against a big Jaguares pack that includes Petti who is one of the keys to the Jaguares lineout.
Tevita Kuridrani v. Matias Orlando
Kuridrani has had a solid 2019 season so far and played in every game so far. He’s given the Brumbies the go forward and consistency they need especially given the changes at 12 with Irae Simone and Tom Wright given starts there. Orlando is a dangerous player and the leading try scorer for the Jags so he’ll need to be contained if the Brumbies are to win.
Prediction
The Brumbies showed last week they can defend and win without the ball but this will be a completely different game with their backline looking the more settled of the two sides. The Jaguares are without some of their major danger players, which could help the Brumbies and having won here before and they should get it done again.
TEAMS
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BRUMBIES
1 James Slipper
2 Folau Fainga’a
3 Allan Alaalatoa
4 Rory Arnold
5 Sam Carter
6 Jahrome Brown
7 Tom Cusack
8 Pete Samu
9 Matt Lucas
10 Christian Lealiifano
11 Toni Pulu
12 Tom Wright
13 Tevita Kuridrani
14 Henry Speight
15 Tom Banks
Replacements
16 Connal McInereny
17 Scott Sio
18 Leslie Leulua’ialii-Makin
19 Darcy Swain
20 Murray Douglas
21 Joe Powell
22 Wharenui Hawera
23 Andy Muirhead
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”no”]
Jaguares
1 Nahuel Tetaz Chapparro
2 Agustin Creevy
3 Santiago Medrano
4 Guido Petti
5 Tomas Lavanini
6 Pablo Matera
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Tomas Lezana
9 Tomas Cubelli
10 Domingo Miotti
11 Santiago Carreras
12 Jeronimo de la Fuente
13 Matias Orlando
14 Sebastian Cancelliere
15 Emiliano Boffelli
Replacements
16 Julian Montoya
17 Mayco Vivas
18 Enrique Pieretto
19 Rodrigo Bruni
20 Javier Ortega Desio
21 Felipe Ezcurra
22 Bautista Ezcurra
23 Juan Cruz Mallia
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”yes”]
MATCH DEETS
Kick off: 7:40am AEST
Velez Sarsfield
Sunday 28 April
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen
AR1: AJ Jacobs
AR2: Federico Anselmi
TMO: Santiago Borsani[/one_third]
