Both the geographical location of Argentina and the lack of professional rugby in the region make it very difficult for the UAR to organise preparatory matches of the level required for Super Rugby and the Jaguares’ clash with a Georgia XV at least provides a contest.
Coach Gonzalo Quesada, like in most Super Rugby teams, will aim to replace the exodus of the main figures and the retirement of other emblematic players. The replacements will be making their first steps in professional rugby with all that entails. Many of them are coming from the local amateur tournaments and only have international experience in the under-20s World Cup.
As expected in each post-World Cup year, Super Rugby teams have to readjust and experiment by giving rookie players minutes in the competition and in many cases with new coaching staff. At least the Jaguares kept their coaches with the exception of the physical trainer for 2020.
The goal for the 2020 season has to be playoffs but the main objective of UAR for these next two years is to put Los Pumas higher in the rankings to avoid being in the pool of death in the next World Cup.
This goal may conflict with the objectives of Jaguares since to climb in the rankings, Los Pumas must have fresh players for the international windows and Rugby Championship. That imposes a greater rotation of players to give them both mental and physical rest so that they arrive at those instances in the best possible way and avoid what happened at the World Cup in Japan. In that instance, the players arrived with a rugby overdose after the final of Super Rugby.
(Photo by Gabriel Rossi/Getty Images)
The main problem of having only one professional team in Argentina is that players who do not play, or the so-called substitutes, do not have competition or minutes on the field since professional players cannot play for amateur teams that participate in local tournaments and therefore have no games to play.
With the new professional competition that begins this year in South America, players who do not play for the Jaguares will be able to do so for the Ceibos, the Argentine team in the tournament, and the Jaguares can call on them as required. We will have players between the two teams that play under a similar game system and therefore the adaptation will be almost immediate. All players did the preparation together and to this day we do not know many of the names that will be on one team or the other.
I would not be surprised if the majority of players who go on tour to South Africa do not go on the trip through Australia, New Zealand and Japan. This spreads the wear and tear that extensive tours entail, using the largest possible number of players.
To the the trial game itself, it could be seen that the team tried new things in offence, were tough in defence and lethal with recovered balls. The three at the back are very awake and fast to build counterattacks when the ball was recovered. The lineout went well but the scrum problems worsened with the departure of two props, Santiago García Botta and Enrique Pieretto, plus the second rower Tomas Lavanini.
It is not clear who will replace Pablo Matera, but Agustin Creevy and Julian Montoya are in contention.
Also in these two games against Georgia, several players could be seen occupying unnatural positions and the coaches are looking for multi-functional players both in the backs and in the forwards, besides the front row.
The captaincy will fall again to Jeronimo de La Fuente for the second consecutive year.
Very young players that impressed me that you may not have seen are Santiago Chocobares, Tomas Albornoz, and Bautista Pedemonte.
This is the probable XV to face the Lions in the season opener: Tetaz Chaparro, Agustin Creevy, Santiago Medrano, Guido Petti, Lucas Paulos (Marcos Kremer), Francisco Gorrissen, Tomas Lezana, Marcos Kremer (Javier Ortega Desio), Tomas Cubelli, Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, Matias Orlando, Santiago Carreras (Sebastian Cancelliere), Bautista Delguy, Emiliano Boffelli.
There are injuries to Matias Alemanno (three weeks) and Jeronimo de la Fuente (two weeks).
Nobrain
Roar Guru
You ate correct Dario. He probably share the centerfield with Moroni.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
I’ll have to send you a picture with him from 1974!
Nobrain
Roar Guru
I know Georgie very well!!
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
I also remember Gabriel Wilkinson, who went with me to St Brendan's, plus a Forrester (Georgie?) at the Nacional, both from BAC.
Dario
Guest
Hi Nobes, In your probable XV, are there only XIV players. I was hearing that Juan Mallía will be replacement for De La Fuente
JRVJ
Roar Rookie
There's some noise that he's going to Glasgow.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
That is what I remember. There are many families associated with various clubs. BAC is one of them. It is (was?) an interesting mix of old anglo families and other upper middle class people of the area. As a kid, I still recall hearing English spoken at Virrey del Pino. I lived very close to VdP. As I went to St Brendan's, my first rugby was played using VdP as the field. In high school (Nacional Buenos Aires, with Guastella as coach) the full back for our team also played at BAC, Marcelo Tanco. Many St Brendan's kids played for BAC. Do you know Lao Lucchetti? It was by chance that I didn't start club rugby at BAC.
Nobrain
Roar Guru
The father Gorrisen was my coach in under 15 and played lock for the firts divison. He has another son that plays in the first division also. Francisco Gorrisen graduated in Economy before committing for Jaguares. His uncles also played in Belgrano in the first división years ago . A family of rugbiers.
Nobrain
Roar Guru
Yes, probably because domestic scrum rules have been very different than the rest of the world due to many spine injuries collapsing the scrums. These domestic laws have protected the local players but they have a negative effect when they play internationally.
Sinclair Whitbourne
Roar Rookie
Great to have the Argentinian side of things covered, many thanks. I will miss Lavanini; he was a very potent lock and bridged the old world of locking play and the modern style very well. He did have the occasional disciplinary indiscretion but to some degree that comes with the territory of being an enforcer. He will take some replacing. I have been wondering if the scrum issues are partly to do with a technique that has not kept pace with rule changes/interpretations? I don't see the same amount of movement, differential pushing and general 'wrestling' behaviour from Argentina's scrums, compared to the Boks, England and NZ (for example) - Argentinians appear to want to focus on a genuine contest of strength and co-ordination? I appreciate that you are saying that the quality is not there but the weakness has been around for a while, now.
JRVJ
Roar Rookie
They're damn if they do (go deep into the playoffs) and damned if the don't (if they don't get to the playoffs or if they're bounced in the first round). Ways I figure, we're talking about competitive types, who surely will want to win as much as they can. Because of that, I figure that it's better to try to get home field advantage so as to avoid a flight to NZ (*) for the Finals. (*) No disrespect to Saffas and Aussies, but it's hard for me to envision a team from the Republic or Oz getting to the Finals with a higher seed than the Jags. It's possible, but I don't think it's likely.
Nobrain
Roar Guru
Thanks for your response. Realistically speaking due to the geographical location of Argentina Jaguares may not have many chances if they do not get the home filed advantage on the playoff. My point is that getting to the final will carry out wear and tear for Los Pumas and imo LP must go up in the rankings and that is what UAR is aiming to do.
Nobrain
Roar Guru
May be he is not the best in the scrum but in the loose he provides lot of tackles and gives a good fight at mauls and rucks.
Andres
Guest
Very good piece. Thank you, Nobes. There seems to be a decent amount of talent coming up the ranks, but for our props. If Medrano ir really the best tighthead prop that our system can produce, it speaks terribly of our work. Not SR material, let alone test level.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
He played this weekend.
Anibal Pyro
Roar Rookie
Hi Carlos, Gorrissen played for Belgrano Athletic for sure, do not know about his family, but probably comes from that family. Belgrano had the best scrum in URBA in last decade, (without discussion) do not know if someone of the belgrano´s scrum coaches has been called for UAR´s staff, if they hadn´t, do not know what UAR is expecting for, Perhaps Nobes can bring some light about this issue.
Nobrain
Roar Guru
At least he is not coming back to Jaguares. I am not sure what is his current situation in Exeter.
Ulrich
Roar Rookie
Rotating for 2020 and 2021 will do other good things as well such as creating depth and potentially make Argentina a compelling threat in 2020 where we can expect the Boks to have a hangover and Australia to improve significantly. Not sure what to expect from the All Blacks this season. 2021 will again be different for the Boks, with the main focus being the B&I series, but if 2009 is anything to go by then the Boks may also want to challenge for the RC and have another good season.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Thanks NB - do you know what the situation with Pieretto is? Is he staying with Exeter?
JRVJ
Roar Rookie
In addition to what Nobes wrote, the Jaguars are actually pretty deep at certain positions (Hooker, Winger, Fullback, Scrumhalf). That will help them spread the load during the season. I also fully agree that the big issue for the Jaguars will be how to handle their three tours during the regular season. If injuries aren't an issue, it makes sense for Jaguar starters to miss at least one tour each, to save travel wear and tear. Finally, I disagree slightly with Nobes. Yes, the playoffs are a goal for the Jags, but realistically, they need to aim for home field advantage as deep as they can in the playoffs, to avoid the terrible wear and tear they suffered from having to fly to Christchurch for the SR Final and then have to fly back to play the ABs in Argentina in less than 2 weeks (and then have to fly to Australia to play the Wallabies, to come back to Argentina to play the Boks to finallly go to SA to play the Boks in a post-RCh friendly).