Super Rugby’s newcomers

With the start of Super Rugby just days away, rugby writers Jacques van der Westhuyzen and Vata Ngobeni turn the spotlight on the two teams which make their debut.

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Johannesburg - With the start of Super Rugby just days away, rugby writers Jacques van der Westhuyzen and Vata Ngobeni turn the spotlight on the two teams, Jaguares from Argentina and Sunwolves from Japan, which make their debut in the explanded 2016 competition.

It was only a matter of time really before Argentina, who have probably made the most progress in world rugby in the last five years, joined the ever-expanding Super Rugby competition.

Ever since their semi-final showing at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Argentina have been on the up.

With their best players featuring for the top teams in Europe, the standard of the national team’s performances has lifted considerably and they finally got their wish of joining a top-flight competition in 2012 when Los Pumas were added to the annual Rugby Championship, also featuring Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

It ended a good few years of Argentina being the only tier one nation not playing in a regular competition. Europe’s best play in the Six Nations.

The next logical step was for Argentina to also play “provincial rugby” against the best and after years of discussions, the country was included in the newly expanded - to 18 teams - Super Rugby competition, from this season.

It followed after the “Pampas” - without the majority of their Test stars who were all playing in Europe - were given a chance in the Vodacom Cup, playing from 2010 to 2013 and winning the title in 2011 after going on an 11-match unbeaten run.

The Super Rugby side will be known as the Jaguares and will play out of Buenos Aires.

The Jaguares are expected to be a formidable opponent in the competition, especially after the ARU insisted that for players to qualify for the national team and play in the Rugby Championship, they had to make themselves available for the Super Rugby team.

Thus the Jaguares will virtually be a Test side, packed with many star players who until recently featured for some of Europe’s top teams.

Hooker Agustin Creevy will lead a side that will also feature lock Tomas Lavanini, loose forwards Pablo Matera and Leonardo Senatore, scrumhalf Martin Landajo, flyhalf Nicholas Sanchez, centre Juan Martin Hernandez and outside backs Santiago Cordero and Joaquin Tuculet.

If the Jaguares click they’ll be extremely tough to beat, but at the same time they face a completely new experience, with lots of travel and week-in and week-out rugby.

They warmed up for Super Rugby by playing against the Stormers and Lions and their first match in the competition proper will be against the Cheetahs, in Bloemfontein this weekend.

Not much attention would have been placed on the new Japanese outfit, the Sunwolves, making any impact in their maiden Super Rugby season until the Triumph of Brighton.

Brighton was the scene of the biggest upset in World Cup history when Japan stunned the Springboks in their opening match of the tournament.

That result not only shook the rugby world but it catapulted the game to prominence in the Land of the Rising Sun and has awoken a sleeping giant before their entrance to the toughest club competition in the world.

The Sunwolves will certainly take plenty of heart out of what happened in Brighton and being part of the extended South African conference.

At least 10 players who represented the Brave Blossoms in that historic victory in September will line up for the Sunwolves this year and their cause has been further strengthened by the presence of coach and former All Black Mark Hammett.

The likes of Samoan international Tusi Pisi will form the backbone of the backline, while former Cheetahs and Sharks fullback Riaan Viljoen has also made the cut.

Hammett is no stranger to coaching at Super Rugby level and for a while had been at the helm of last year’s losing finalists the Hurricanes before being relieved of his duties.

Much of the Hurricanes’ success in winning the New Zealand conference last year was built by Hammett during his three-year tenure in Wellington so he won’t find the challenge of building the Japanese franchise from scratch a daunting task.

The biggest challenge for Hammett and his team will be the lack of time they would have spent in pre-season as many of their players would have been involved in the Japanese league until mid-January.

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Furthermore, the Sunwolves will have two home stadiums, at Tokyo’s Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium where they will play five matches, and also at the Singapore National Stadium where they will play three games.

The Sunwolves will play in the Africa 1 pool where they will face the Cheetahs, Bulls and Stormers twice.

They will also play one game against teams of the Africa 2 pool - taking on the Lions, Sharks, Kings and Jaguares.

The remainder of their fixtures will be played against the Australian conference teams.

The Star