Lions look for home comforts against the Jaguares

The Lions will look to claim a place in the semifinals of the 2018 Super Rugby season when they host the Jaguares at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday, July 21, kick-off at 15h05 CAT.

The Lions secured their place at the top of the South African Conference with a 38-12 home win over local rivals the Bulls last weekend.

Tries from Ruan Combrinck (two), Malcolm Marx, Courtnall Skosan, Aphiwe Dyantyi and a penalty five-pointer helped the Johannesburg side to a ninth win from their 16 regular season matches.

The Jaguares were also in action last week, but they suffered a 20-10 defeat away to the Sharks in Durban as they managed only a converted try from Sebastian Cancelliere and a penalty by Joaquin Diaz Bonilla.

The Argentine side also finished the league portion of the 2018 season with nine wins and finished second on the South African Conference.

Swys De Bruin’s team will hope that their strength at home brings them through this test, with the hosts looking to the likes of Marx, Warren Whitely and Elton Jantjies to guide them to victory.

Mario Ledesma’s charges are making their debut in the knockout rounds of the competition and will expect players such as Pablo Matera, Diaz Bonilla and Cancelliere to rise to the challenge and get them back to the form which saw them pick up four successive away wins back in April and May.

In head-to-head stats, the Lions and Jaguares have met in six matches dating back to the latter’s first Super Rugby season in 2016. Each side has claimed three wins, and there have been no draws. This rivalry is yet to produce an away winner.

The teams’ two meetings this season saw the Lions triumph 47-27 in Johannesburg in February, but just a month later the Jaguares got their revenge with a 49-35 triumph in Buenos Aires.

Lions v Jaguares – head-to-head

Matches played 6
Lions wins 3
Jaguares wins 3
Draws 0
Lions points 204
Jaguares points 191

Teams

Lions

15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Warren Whiteley (captain), 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Kwagga Smith, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Marvin Orie, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen

Substitutes: 16 Corne Fourie, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Marnus Schoeman, 21 Dillon Smit, 22 Courtnall Skosan, 23 Howard Mnisi

Jaguares

15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Orlando, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Matias Moroni, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Tomas Lezana, 6 Pablo Matera (captain), 5 Marcos Kremer 4 Guido Petti, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Agustin Creevy, 1 Santiago Garcia Botta

Substitutes: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Tomas Lavanini, 21 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 22 Martin Landajo, 23 Sebastian Cancelliere