Jaguares lock in squad for 2019
New Jaguares head coach Gonzalo Quesada has confirmed his roster ahead of the 2019 Super Rugby preseason which will start next week.
The group of 43 players contains several new faces, plus the return of some familiar ones. Veteran halfback Tomás Cubelli is set to make his debut with the Jaguares after spending the 2018 Super Rugby season sidelined with a neck injury.
Joaquín Tuculet and Enrique Pieretto also make their return to the squad after recovering from knee injuries that kept them out in recent months.
The most notable absence is first five-eighth Nicolas Sanchez. The inspirational No. 10 linked up with Stade Francais for the 2018 Top 14 season in France.
New faces include breakout Pumas back rower Rodrigo Bruni as well as Dominic Miotti, Franco Molina and Gaspar Baldunciel.
The Pumas U20s also contribute a handful of graduates including Santiago Chocobares, Ignacio Mendy, Lucas Paulos, Santiago Carreras, Santiago Grondona, Lucio Sordoni and Mayco Vivas. The last four players were also selected for the Pumas in November.
The Jaguares will compete in their fourth season since they were introduced in 2016. They will be looking to improve on what was a watershed campaign in 2018, where they made the playoffs for the first time and finished the season with nine wins.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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