Jaguares maul hapless Bulls

In monsoon-like conditions – which made underfoot treacherous – the home team showed better tactical acumen.

The Jaguares looked to be enjoying the atrocious conditions and certainly showed better skills.

They used their maul to great effect – two of their tries coming from powerful line-out drives – one racing from over 20 metres out.

Captain Agustin Creevy score both the rolling maul tries.

The Bulls just could not cope with the conditions and made far too many errors, mostly unforced, and conceded far too many silly penalties.

The result – which put a serious dent in the Bulls' play-off hopes – is another away loss for the Bulls who have only won two matches in their last sixteen outside of South Africa.

The victory is the Jaguares third this season from 13 matches played.

The Bulls and the Sharks are in a race for the African conference Wild Card place and after this loss the Bulls could need the Cheetahs or Sunwolves to beat the Sharks if they are to remain in contention.

The Bulls trail the Sharks by three points and failed to take any points from their trip to Argentina.

Next week the Bulls return home to Pretoria – where they will host the Sunwolves at Loftus Versfeld, while the Jaguares are at home again and will play the Highlanders.

Flyhalf Francois Brummer struck first in the 10th minute, when a Jaguares player was caught offside tracking back.

However, Nicolas Sánchez hit back soon after.

A minute later the Jaguares were over for the game's first try. It was a strong finish from flank Matera, who rolled over in the tackle. Sánchez added the simple conversion to give the Jaguares a 10-3 advantage which, in a played in these conditions, was a healthy lead.

In the 22nd minute that cushion was increased thanks to an excellent line-out drive that saw Creevy at the tail for a 20-odd metres surge. This time Sánchez was off-target from the right-hand side, meaning it was a 15-3 buffer with the Bulls now desperately needing a response.

They should have closed the gap on 30 minutes, but Brummer missed a simple penalty. He made no such mistake four minutes later – the hosts taking a 15-6 lead into the break.

Sánchez crucially got the first points of the second period, when he slotted a penalty after Rudy Paige made a high tackle on 48 minutes.

And when Creevy crossed for his second try, in similar style to his first, suddenly the hosts had raced into a 23-6 lead nearing the hour.

But then up stepped replacement scrumhalf Piet van Zyl for the Bulls, to give them hope when he fought his way over from a quick tap to make it 11-23 on 60 minutes.

With Brummer's missed conversion, the visitors still required two scores if they were to claim the win.

It wasn't to be as errors and a superior opposition on the night led to Sánchez kicking two further penalties that wrapped up the result.

Man of the match: Renaldo Bothma tried his heart out, after coming on as an early replacement, while Piet van Zyl brought the energy that was lacking when he came on in the second half. The Jaguares pack outmuscled the Bulls and bullied them up front. Flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez controlled matters well, but our award goes to Jaguares scrumhalf Martin Landajo – for his skill and tactical acumen in the difficult conditions.

The scorers:

For the Jaguares:

Tries: Matera, Creevy 2

Con: Sanchez

Pens: Sanchez 4

For the Bulls:

Try: Van Zyl

Pens: Brummer 2

Teams:

Jaguares: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustin Creevy (captain), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.

Replacements: 16 Julian Montoya, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Ignacio Larrague, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Matias Orlando, 23 Lucas Gonzales Amorosino.

Bulls: 15 Sarel Marais, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Pieter Labuschagne (captain), 6 Roelof Smit, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.

Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Jannes Kirsten, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Dries Swanepoel, 23 Werner Kruger.

Referee: Craig Joubert

Assistant referees: Federico Anselmi, Juan Sylvestre

TMO: Santiago Borsani