1980 South American Jaguars rugby union tour of South Africa

The 1980 South American Jaguars rugby union tour of South Africa was a series of seven matches played by the South American Jaguars rugby union team in South Africa in April and May 1980. The South American team won the first four matches of the tour and lost the last three. The lost both tests of the two match series against the South Africa national rugby union team.

The touring party was composed almost entirely of players from the Argentina national rugby union team and included all but one of the players who had played for Argentina in a drawn series with Australia in 1979. The touring party numbered twenty-six players, of whom one came from Brazil, one from Chile, one from Uruguay and one from Paraguay. The other twenty-two players came from Argentina including the captain, Hugo Porta. Porta was asked to return to South Africa later that year to play for the South African Barbarians against the touring 1980 British Lions.

The selection was almost formed by Argentine player, erxpecially in the two test match against Springboks, were only Argentine Player play the match.

The player were individually invited to play in this tour and against South Africa in two match played later during the springboks tour of South America

The "South America Jaguars" was a "ghost" Argentine national team, not officially recognised by Union Argentina de Rugby, a "stratagem" to elude the prohibition of Argentine Government that since early '70s forbid any official relationship between any Argentine sport federation and South African and Rhodesian ones. This due the apartheid politics of the two African countries. This ostracism start in 1971 when the Argentine Government forbid to "Pumas" to play a match in Rhodesia during the tour in South Africa. Later in 1973, after a controversial period, the government forbid any sport relationship with South Africa.

Matches

12 April 1980

Boland	12–42	South American Jaguars

Wellington

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16 April 1980

Northern Free State	25–42	South American Jaguars

Welkom

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19 April 1980

SA Gazelles	19–30	South American Jaguars

Pretoria

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22 April 1980

SE Transvaal	21–30	South American Jaguars

Witbank

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26 April 1980

South Africa	24–9	South American Jaguars
Try: TD du Plessis Germishuys, Mordt Con: Botha 3 Pen: Botha Drop: Botha		Try: Travaglini Con: Loffreda Pen: Loffreda

Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg Attendance: 34,000 Referee: Ken Rowlands (Wales)

South Africa		South American Jaguars
Pierre Edwards	FB	15	FB	Daniel Baetti
Ray Mordt	W	14	W	Adolfo Cappelletti
Willie du Plessis	C	13	C	Marcelo Loffreda
Peter Whipp	C	12	C	Rafael Madero
Gerrie Germishuys	W	11	W	Marcelo Campo
Naas Botha	FH	10	FH	Hugo Porta (capt.)
Tommy du Plessis	SH	9	SH	Tomas Landajo
(capt.) Morne du Plessis	N8	8	N8	Ernesto Ure
Theuns Stofberg	F	7	F	Gabriel Travaglini
Rob Louw	F	6	F	Tomas Petersen
Louis Moolman	L	5	L	Marcos Iachetti
Kevin de Klerk	L	4	L	Alejandro Iachetti
Johan Strauss	P	3	P	Hugo Nicola
Dave Frederickson	H	2	H	Alejandro Cubelli
Richard Prentis	P	1	P	Topo Rodriguez

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29 April 1980

Western Province	13–15	South American Jaguars

Cape Town

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3 May 1980

South Africa	18–9	South American Jaguars
Try: M du Plessis Con: Botha Pen: Botha Drop: Botha 3		Pen: Piccardo 3

Kings Park, Durban Attendance: 34,000 Referee: Ken Rowlands (Wales)

South Africa		South American Jaguars
Pierre Edwards	FB	15	FB	Daniel Baetti
Ray Mordt	W	14	W	Adolfo Cappelletti
Willie du Plessis	C	13	C	Juan Pablo Piccardo
Peter Whipp	C	12	C	Rafael Madero
Gerrie Germishuys	W	11	W	Marcelo Campo
Naas Botha	FH	10	FH	Hugo Porta (capt.)
Tommy du Plessis	SH	9	SH	Tomas Landajo
(capt.) Morne du Plessis	N8	8	N8	Hector Silva
Theuns Stofberg	F	7	F	Gabriel Travaglini
Rob Louw	F	6	F	Tomas Petersen
Louis Moolman	L	5	L	Ernesto Ure
Kevin de Klerk	L	4	L	Alejandro Iachetti
Daan du Plessis	P	3	P	Hugo Nicola
Dave Frederickson	H	2	H	Alejandro Cubelli
Richard Prentis	P	1	P	Topo Rodriguez
		Replacements
Gysie Pienaar	FB	16
De Wet Ras	C	17

Touring party

• Manager: M. Dolan
• Assistant Managers: L. Gradin, A. Otano
• Captain: Hugo Porta

Backs

(Argentina unless stated)

Daniel Baetti Ricardo Muniz Marcelo Campo Roberto Canessa (Uruguay) Adolfo Cappelletti Marcelo Loffreda Rafael Madero

P. Mirando-Cardosa (Brazil) F. Moscarda (Paraguay) Hugo Porta Juan Pablo Piccardo R. Landajo Alfredo Soares-Gache

Forwards

(Argentina unless stated)

Gabriel Travaglini A. Voltan Ernesto Ure H. Silva Enrique Rodríguez Tomás Petersen Javier Pérez-Cobo

Hugo Nicola Fernando Morel Alastair MacGregor Martin (Chile) Alejandro Iachetti Marcos Iachetti Alejandro Cubelli

Sources

• Union Argentina dr Rugby Memorias 1980