Super Rugby kicks off on Saturday in Tokyo Japan were the Sunwolves and the Jaguares meet for the very first time.
The Sunwolves and the Jaguares are both new teams to Super Rugby and both are having a touch time in the tournament.
Japan’s Sunwolves have played seven out of their 15 scheduled Super Rugby matches and they have yet to win a match yet.
Last week the Sunwolves suffered their biggest loss yet but its questionable as to whether their hearts were in the match due to the earthquakes in Japan at the time.
The match was also the last on a tour that started in Singapore, stopped off in Port Elizabeth and finished in Bloemfontein. The third week is always the hardest in #SuperRugby on tour. The Sunwolves are also missing their star wing Akihito Yamada.
The Jaguares won their opening match but have now slumped to a six match losing streak. Much was expected from the Jaguares given that they have a full international side in their squad but it hasn’t clicked yet for the South Americans.
The Jaguares have been on a three match tour of New Zealand in recent weeks as they have played the Blues, Hurricanes and Crusaders. For this week’s match they have flown to Tokyo which has to have something out of the players. The Jaguares did however rotate 10 players on the tour to keep them as fresh as possible.
For this match the Jaguares have made five changes to the side that lost to the Crusaders. In the front row prop Felipe Arregui comes in for Santiago García Botta.
In the second row Juan Cruz Guillemain starts in place of Guido Petti and on the flank Pablo Matera replaces Rodrigo Báez who has been benced.
Emiliano Boffelli is replaced by Lucas González Amorosino on the left wing and Ramiro Matias starts on the other wing for Matias Orlando.
The Sunwolves have made four changes for this week. Atsushi Hiwasa comes in at scrumhalf for Yuki Yatomi who drops out of the matchday squqd entirely.
Also in the backline Derek Carpenter and Harumichi Tatekawa change places in the midfield.
In the forwards Yoshiya Hosoda starts for Tomás Leonardi and will join Ed Quirk and Andrew Durutalo in the back row.
Shinnosuke Kakinaga starts in the front row which pushes Takuma Asahara down to the replacements bench. Prop Masataka Mikami and captain Shota Horie make up the front row with Kakinga.
This Match will be shown on TV in NZ (Sky), Aus (Fox Sports), SA (SuperSport) and in the UK on Sky Sports 2.
Average score: N/A
No results
Match No.65:Sunwolves v Jaguares
Date : Saturday 23 April 2016
Venue : Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo
Kick Off local: 14:15 local
Referee: Jamie Nutbrown
Assistant Ref 1:Chris Pollock
Assistant Ref 2:Noriaki Hashimoto
TMO :Takashi Hareda
Teams
Sunwolves
15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Viliami Lolohea, 13 Derek Carpenter, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa, 11 Mifiposeti Paea, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Ed Quirk, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Yoshiya Hosoda, 5 Liaki Moli, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 2 Shota Horie (c), 1 Masataka Mikami
Replacements: 16 Takeshi Kizu, 17 Jiwon Gu, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Fa’ Atiga Lemalu, 20 Taiyo Ando, 21 Kaito Shigeno, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Yasutaka Sasakura
Jaguares (revised)
1- Felipe Arregui , 2- Agustín Creevy (C) , 3- Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro , 4- Guido Petti , 5- Matías Alemanno , 6- Pablo Matera , 7- Juan Manuel Leguizamón , 8- Facundo Isa , 9- Gonzalo Bertranou , 10- Juan Martín Hernández , 11- Lucas González Amorosino , 12- Santiago González Iglesias , 13- Jerónimo de la Fuente , 14- Ramiro Moyano , 15- Joaquín Tuculet
Replacements : 16- Facundo Bosch , 17- Facundo Gigena , 18- Enrique Pieretto , 19- Matías Orlando , 20- Rodrigo Báez , 21- Felipe Ezcurra , 22- Joaquín Paz , 23- Emiliano Boffelli
