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Argentina team shows four changes for rematch with the Wallabies
By Liam Heagney
Michael Cheika has made four changes to his Argentina team for this Saturday’s Rugby Championship round two meeting with Australia in San Juan. Los Pumas ran out of steam in last weekend’s tournament opener, losing 41-26 to the Wallabies in Mendoza, and their new head coach has reacted by announcing a quartet of alterations - three of them in his backline.
The Australian must have been satisfied with how his starting pack fared in round one as there is only a single change up front in the team, Thomas Gallo getting promoted from the Argentina replacements to start at loosehead in place of the benched Manuel Tetaz Chaparro.
It’s in the backs, though, where the changes are more pronounced, Cheika making switches at scrum-half, centre and wing.
Tomas Cubelli was last weekend named to start at No9 in place of Lautaro Bazan Velez for the round one Rugby Championship game, but he has now been demoted to the bench with Gonzalo Bertranou named as the starter in a half-back partnership with Santiago Carreras.
Elsewhere, Juan Imhoff is named on the left wing with Emiliano Boffelli, the series-clinching try-scorer versus Scotland, switching to the right wing where Santiago Cordero drops out. Meanwhile, Matias Moroni is promoted from the bench to start in place of Matias Orlando at outside centre.
Four of the eight-strong replacements are the same as in Mendoza. Chaparro and Cubelli have both dropped down from the starting XV while Facundo Isa and Lucio Sinti are included as cover with Santiago Grondona excluded from the matchday 23 and Moroni upgraded to start.
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Latest Comments
Recent complaints that SA players have a 12-month workload isn't of itself a credible enough excuse to lay at the door of EPCR administrators. If SA clubs want to participate in NH league and club competitions and also participate in SH internationals, then clearly something has to give.
From the EPCR perspective, I do think that the format/schedule issues can be fixed if there's a strong enough desire to remove some of the logistical challenges clubs are facing with these long and frequent trips across the hemispheres.
From the SA player workload perspective however, I'm not sure how players can participate safely and competitively at both the club and international levels. Perhaps - and as Rassie appears to be developing, SA develop a super squad with sufficient player numbers and rotation to allow players to compete across the full 12-month calendar.
Bottom line though, is the geographical isolation is always going to restrict SA's ability to having the best of both worlds.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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