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South africa v south american jaguars 1982
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.
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1984 rugby union match south africa springboks vs south american jaguars 1st test
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 Uruguayan, Chilean, Paraguayan and Brazilian 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.
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 1984 the Argentine Government forced the Union Argentina de Rugby to forbid the use of any Argentine emblem by the players.