Jaguares shock Chiefs, Crusaders run riot in Melbourne
Argentina's Jaguares upset the Waikato Chiefs to claim their fourth straight away win as the defending champions Canterbury Crusaders went on a second-half rampage in Melbourne on Friday.
The Jaguares claimed their second New Zealand scalp in as many weeks with a 23-19 win over the Chiefs in Rotorua.
It was an unprecedented fourth consecutive win for Mario Ledesma's men, who scored two tries to nil, including a penalty try.
Across in Melbourne, the record eight-time Super Rugby champion Crusaders overpowered the Rebels 55-10 after leading 13-10 at half-time.
It was the Crusaders biggest win in Australia and stretched New Zealand's winning run over Australian opposition to 37 straight matches.
The Crusaders paid for ill-discipline with flanker Matt Todd and fullback David Havili both sin-binned as the Rebels drew level at 10-10 before the Kiwis edged ahead with a penalty after the half-time siren.
The Rebels' misery was compounded by a medial knee ligament injury to their Wallaby scrum-base general Will Genia, forcing him from the field just before half-time.
The Crusaders launched into a six-try second half with a try double to hooker Andrew Makalio and an impressive return from injury for fly-half Richie Mo'unga.
"The main thing at half-time was discipline, we had a couple of guys in the bin in the first half and no matter who you're playing if you're down to 14 players for a long period of time you pay," Crusaders skipper Sam Whitelock said.
"It was great tonight, the boys worked hard for each other."
Meanwhile, the Jaguares took two-and-a-half seasons to beat a New Zealand team in the Auckland Blues last week then backed it up with victory against the highly rated Chiefs.
It gives them a perfect record on their Australasian road trip, with wins against Melbourne Rebels, ACT Brumbies, Blues and Chiefs.
As they head back to Buenos Aires for a well-deserved bye, lock Guido Petti Pagadizava said confidence was high in the team that has struggled at times since joining Super Rugby in 2016.
"We keep doing our thing and trying to focus on our game and it's coming," he said.
The Chiefs let themselves down with poor discipline and were down to 13 men at one point, with two players in the sin bin.
They lost Sam Cane and Lachlan Boshier to injury just before kickoff and lacked fluency in attack.
"They brought a lot of heat and line speed," Chiefs fullback Charlie Ngatai said.
"We couldn't make any breaks, they put a lot of pressure on us, and that's our game really."