South American Jaguars
The side was originally 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 few Brazilian, Chilean, Paraguayan and Uruguayan players. Over the eight matches players, seven of them were won by Springboks and only one was won by the Jaguars. This single victory came at Bloemfontein in 1982.
The "South America Jaguars" was a "ghost" Argentine national team, not officially recognized by Union Argentina de Rugby, a stratagem to elude the prohibition of the Argentine Government that since early '70s forbade any official relationship between any Argentine sport federation and South African and Rhodesian ones. This was due the apartheid politics of those African 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 first contested to UAR the permit gave to San Isidro Club to visit the same country, and declare "outlaw" all the federation: the federal committee of UAR resigned and new election was held in 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 remain until 1991.
In 1982, after that also the political relationship between Australia and Argentina, was broken due to the Falkand War (that start during the tour of Jaguars in South Africa, was cancelled the second tour in South America.
In 1984 the Argentine Government forced the Union Argentina de Rugby to forbid the use of any Argentine emblem by the players.
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