Two yellow cards in quick succession and a penalty try have helped the Jaguares secure their fourth straight Super Rugby win - and their second against a New Zealand team - with a 23-19 victory over the Chiefs in Rotorua.
The visitors led 13-12 early in the second half, when referee Mike Fraser sent lock Michael Allardice and flanker Liam Messam to the sin bin, while awarding an automatic seven-pointer against the Chiefs for bringing down a maul on the goal-line.
As it happened: Super Rugby - Chiefs vs Jaguares
With captain Sam Cane (abdominal strain) and blindside flanker Lachlan Boshier (appendix) ruled out in the hours before kick-off, the Chiefs loose forward combination underwent a pre-game shuffled that also saw All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick recalled from his rest week to fill a reserve spot.
The Chiefs opened the scoring with an early penalty, but spent most of the opening quarter stoutly defending against wave after wave of Jaguares attacks.
Eventually, Emiliano Boffelli levelled the scoreline with a 50-metre penalty, but Damian McKenzie seized the advantage back moments later.
The home side began building a promising attack, stringing together several phases, but when prop Karl Tu'inukuafe spilled a pass in centrefield, Jaguares captain Joaquin Tuculet hared upfield to create a try for winger Ramiro Moyano.
The Chief spent most of the half patiently building phases, based on their dominance at scrum time, but were unable to penetrate the opposition defence. Instead, McKenzie kicked four penalties, as his team somehow took a 12-10 lead into the break.
Nicolas Sanchez kicked a penalty soon after the restart to put the visitors ahead again, but the real turning point came 10 minutes later, when Allardice was sin-binned for taking out an opponent in mid-air with a dangerous tackle and then his short-handed team conceded the penalty try, losing Messam for 10 minutes in the process.
The Jaguares forwards were rolling a maul towards the goal-line, but were brought down short and Messam copped the blame.
The South Americans could not fully capitalise on their numerical advantage - they couldn't add to their score over the next 10 minutes - but the damage was done.
In the dying moments, Chiefs debutant Jesse Parete crossed for a try that gifted his team a bonus point, but the celebrations belonged to the Argentines, who had never won four straight in three Super Rugby seasons.
Chiefs 19 (Parete try, McKenzie 4 penalties & conversion) Jaguares 23 (Moyano try, penalty try, Sanchez 2 conversions & 2 penalties, Boffelli penalty)
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