South American Jaguars

The South American Jaguars was a rugby union team made up of players from South America, who competed against South African teams in the 1980s.

History

The side was formed in the 1980s for fixtures against South Africa who invited South America to tour there as a way of counteracting its sporting isolation which was due to the country's apartheid policies. The team that toured, was mainly made up of Argentina players and included a few Brazilian, Chilean, Paraguayan and Uruguayan players. Over the eight matches played, seven of them were won by the Springboks and only one was won by the Jaguars. This single victory came at Bloemfontein in 1982.

The Jaguars was a 'shadow' Argentine national team, not officially recognized by Union Argentina de Rugby, a stratagem to elude the prohibition of the Argentine government that since the early 1970s forbade any official relationship between any Argentine sport federation and South African and Rhodesian ones, due to the apartheid politics of those countries. This ostracism started in 1971 when the Argentine government forbade the Pumas to play a match in Rhodesia during the tour in South Africa.^[1]

In March 1973, the Argentine government and the Union Argentina de Rugby had a great conflict: the government contested to UAR the permit given to San Isidro Club to visit South Africa, and forced the federal committee of UAR to resign. A new committee was elected on 24 April 1973. In November the government also forbade all visits to South Africa by any Argentine team and any visit of a South African team into Argentina. This ban remained until 1991.

In 1982 the political relationship between Australia and Argentina was also damaged due to the Falklands War.

In 1984 the Argentine Government forced the Union Argentina de Rugby to forbid the use of any Argentine emblem by the players.^[2]

Results

Date	Venue	Home	Score	Away	Tour
26 April 1980	Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg	South Africa	24 - 9	South American Jaguars	1980 South America tour
3 May 1980	Kings Park Stadium, Durban	South Africa	18 - 9	South American Jaguars
18 October 1980	Montevideo, Uruguay	South American Jaguars	13 - 22	South Africa	1980 South Africa tour
25 October 1980	Santiago, Chile	South American Jaguars	16 - 30	South Africa
27 March 1982	Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria	South Africa	50 - 18	South American Jaguars	1982 South America tour
3 April 1982	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein	South Africa	12 - 21	South American Jaguars
20 October 1984	Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria	South Africa	32 - 15	South American Jaguars
27 October 1984	Newlands Stadium, Cape Town	South Africa	22 - 13[3]	South American Jaguars

References

v t e Rugby union tours of South Africa British and Irish Lions 1891 1896 1903 1910 1924 1938 1955 1962 1968 1974 1980 1997 2009 New Zealand  1928 1939 1960 1970 1976 1992 1996 Australia  1933 1953 1961 1963 1969 1992 Argentina  1965 (no test) 1971 (no test) 1994 2002 2003 England  1972 1984 1994 1998 2000 2007 2012 France  1958 1964 1967 1971 1975 1980 1993 2001 2005 2006 Ireland  1961 1981 1998 2004 Italy  1973 (no test) 1999 2001 2008 Scotland  1999 (no test) 2003 2006 Wales  1964 1998 2002 2004 2008 Fiji  1996 Samoa  2003 (no test) 2007 Tonga  1997 Various selections 1978 (American Cougars) 1980 (S.A.Jaguars) 1982 (S.A.Jaguars) 1985 (Cavaliers) 1987 (South Sea Barbarians) 1989 (World XV)