The Jaguares make the trip over to South Africa to take on the Sharks in a fight for the finals wild card position in the standings. Catch all the live scores on The Roar from 11:05pm (AEST).
The Jaguares and Sharks are separated only by points difference in the South African Group, sharing four wins, two bonus points and 18 competition points each.
The nearest side to their two-team finals race is the Cheetahs, who have only half the points of these two sides.
The Argentine side has already equalled their entire 2016 debut season tally for wins, the mark being four, having bagged the quadruple in just five games as they look to make a historic finals appearance.
They are fresh off a bye and a win over the Reds in Week 5, their third in a row, and sit just one game behind last year’s grand finalists, the Lions.
The Sharks lost to the aforementioned Lions last week in a thriller away from home, letting the game slip away close to full time to lose 34-29.
The Jaguares played the Sharks twice in their debut season last year, losing both, but by margins of only three and four points at home-and-away respectively.
Team News
Sharks coach Robert du Preez will welcome back ‘The Beast’, Tendai Mtawarira to his side after the prop took a week off after the unfortunate passing of his grandmother.
He will be joined by fellow Springbok Stephan Lewies, who comes into the side in the back row, pushing Ruan Botha onto the bench.
Similarly, the Jaguares have only made a couple of adjustments to their line up, including a change in the halves.
Nicolas Sanchez will slot in at five-eight, replacing Juan Martín Hernandez who has been left out of the side.
The only other change is in the front row, with big Argentinian Ramiro Herrera being named at tighthead.
Prediction
The Sharks got the win twice last year against the Argentines, but the Jaguares are a completely different beast this year and have the finals in their sights.
Despite being away from home, the Jaguares have looked too good in the last month to drop this one with so much on the line.
Jaguares to win by 6
Catch all the live scores on The Roar from 11:05pm (AEST).
Nobrain
Roar Guru
Ranked nbr 18 in scrums and 17 in line outs. The Sharks slowed the ball down in the rucks ( ranked 1) and that was it for the Jags.
Colonel_Fabien
Roar Rookie
Hi y'all, Jags fan here. I'm satisfied with the final result. The Sharks did a bit more of the job that the Jags were unable to do; a scrappy victory for them but a win is win. I'm happy the Jags got the defensive bonus point; that may be very important in a few weeks. I could only start watching the game from the minute 36 on (was rushing back home from the pub, where they were not showing the game); so I'll have to watch (inflict myself?) the game again in YT and see whether or not Neutral is right on his complaining about the ref being a bit hard on the Jags in the first half at scrum time; but in any case the referee in the 2nd half was very good & serious, no interruptions, no hesitations, calling the right calls. Yes, Nico Sánchez had another erratic performance that made him look back in 2016, but he stills have some credits with me for the future games. I do have a complaint about one of my favourite players, Joaquín Tuculet; specifically about his Street Fighting air kick against a Sharks player. That was both very dangerous for the Sharks player and very stupid of Tuculet, he could have gotten a red card for that, or at least a yellow one. How irresponsable of him! If any Saffa is reading this, I wish to congratulate him sincerely for the Sharks victory and hope their team brings in again their best players for the return game in BsAs. At this point in time, I'm pretty confident the Jags will win that one, and it would be much better to do it against a full Sharks side than to their B side; and I don't think they will make that mistake with both teams being practically neck and neck at the table.
davSA
Guest
Was a very tough game played tight . At one stage I thought the Sharks were out on their feet , then I thought the Jaguares were . Doesn't always have to be a running festival to be enjoyable. I thought the Sharks probably would have taken more out of this game than the Argies did. I wouldn't bet against the Jaguares on the return leg though.
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
Hola NB I think they were a little bit hard done by the ref in the first half at scrum time. They could have 3-4 penalties IMO, but ref just waved played on even when jags destroyed Sharks scrum. But overall, no excuses. Jags could have won that game if they just had played close to the normal ability this season. And Sanchez missed to makable penalties also. If he had nailed those, Jags could easily won this game. Lets not forget that Jags still have a lot of injuries, things overall are still looking pretty good.
Gewurtz
Guest
The usual lack of consistency from the Jaguares, who promise so much and deliver so little. Huevos, señores.
Harry Jones
Expert
Important win by the guppies
Nobrain
Roar Guru
Jaguares set pieces were awful, lines plus the scrums in the second half were one of the worst I have seen.
The Neutral View From Sweden
Roar Guru
To many handling errors from both sides. Felt like it was 30+ scrums at least. Poor game, but both sides look pretty solid in their structures.
JT
Guest
Not a great game at all, but the Sharks will take the result with both hands