1
Hourcade shuffles Argentina deck again for All Blacks clash
By Nicholas McGee
Argentina have made seven changes to their team for the Rugby Championship clash with New Zealand in New Plymouth on Saturday, having suffered successive defeats to start the tournament.
South Africa inflicted a pair of opening losses on the Pumas, and coach Daniel Hourcade has swung the axe in response.
Lock Tomas Lavanini has been left out after two yellow cards in the 41-23 reverse to the Springboks in their previous fixture.
Replacing him is Guido Petti while Benjamin Macome surprisingly comes in for Juan Manuel Leguizamon at number eight. Tomas Lezana drops to the bench in favour of Javier Ortega Desio in the other change on the back row.
On the right wing Santiago Cordero takes Ramiro Moyano's spot, Matias Moroni replaces Matias Orlando at outside centre and Nicolas Sanchez starts at fly-half due to a stomach issue for Juan Martin Hernandez.
Another enforced change sees Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro come in for tighthead prop Ramiro Herrera, who has a back strain.
"For us to play against the All Blacks is always a huge motivation and you end up with positive things, because facing the best makes you grow," Hourcade said.
"We prepare to face the best team in the world and we will enter with a strategy looking to hurt the opponent, but we know the opponent that we have.
"Benjamin Macome is training very well, he is a ball carrier similar to Leguizamon and now will have his opportunity. The rest of the players are also training very well and, as I always say, there are no substitutes and starters. We choose the best player for each match."
The team selection sees Hourcade shuffle the deck again after he made six changes for the second game with the Springboks.
Argentina have never beaten New Zealand in 24 Tests, drawing once in 1985.
Argentina: Joaquin Tuculet, Santiago Cordero, Matias Moroni, Jeronimo de la Fuente, Emiliano Boffelli, Nicolas Sanchez, Tomas Cubelli; Lucas Noguera Paz, Agustin Creevy (captain), Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Matias Alemanno, Guido Petti, Pablo Matera, Javier Ortega Desio, Benjamin Macome.
Replacements: Julian Montoya, Santiago Garcia Botta, Enrique Pieretto, Marcos Kremer, Tomas Lezana, Martin Landajo, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, Matias Orlando.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales have the same problem
3
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
4
Let's be real about these All Blacks
5
Latest Comments
Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
Go to comments