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Hourcade turns to rookies for final Test
By Online Editors
Centre Bautista Ezcurra will win his first Argentina cap when he plays against Scotland Saturday in a one-off Test at Estadio Centenario in Resistencia.
His selection ahead of Jeronimo de la Fuente is among six changes – one injury-enforced – to the side outplayed 12-30 by Wales in Santa Fe last weekend.
Argentina also suffered a heavy loss to Wales in the first of two Tests, leaving them needing to defeat Scotland to avoid a mid-season whitewash.
In the other backline alteration, wing Sebastian Cancelliere gets a first start for the Pumas in place of injured Ramiro Moyano.
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Among the forwards, coach Daniel Hourcade has altered the front, second and back rows for his final match in charge after a poor two-season run led him to quit.
Loosehead Javier Diaz replaces Santiago Garcia Botta, lock Matias Alemanno takes over from Tomas Lavanini and flank Tomas Lezana comes in for Marcos Kremer.
At No.8, veteran Leonardo Senatore gets the nod ahead of Javier Ortega Desio for his first appearance of the June Tests.
In earlier tour matches, Scotland walloped Canada 48-10 before suffering a shock 29-30 defeat by the United States.
ARGENTINA
15. Emiliano Boffelli, 14. Bautista Delguy, 13. Matias Orlando, 12. Bautista Ezcurra, 11. Sebastian Cancelliere, 10. Nicolas Sanchez, 9. Martín Landajo, 8. Leonardo Senatore, 7. Tomas Lezana, 6. Pablo Matera, 5. Matias Alemanno, 4. Guido Petti, 3. Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2. Agustin Creevy (C), 1. Javier Diaz.
Replacements: 16. Julian Montoya, 17. Santiago Garcia Botta, 18. Santiago Medrano, 19. Marcos Kremer, 20. Tomas Lavanini, 21. Gonzalo Bertranou, 22. Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23. Juan Cruz Mallia.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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