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NAMED: Landajo retains place as Hourcade makes three Pumas changes
By Alex Fisher
Martin Landajo will make his 70th appearance for Argentina on Saturday after being named in Daniel Hourcade's starting XV to face South Africa in the Rugby Championship.
The Pumas begin their sixth appearance in the competition against the Proteas in Port Elizabeth looking to improve on their solitary win in 2016.
A 26-24 victory las year over the Springboks was their only success of the tournament, as they finished bottom of the table with just five points from six matches.
Hourcade has made three changes for Saturday's clash from the side that beat Georgia 45-29 in June, but Landajo - who has played in every Test under Hourcade - retains his place.
"I am happy to be able to play my 70th game on Saturday," the scrum-half told a media conference.
"It is an honour for me to wear this shirt that has given me so many beautiful memories."
Tomas Lavanini and Pablo Matera come into the forwards in place of Matias Alemanno and Rodrigo Baez to face the Boks, while Emiliano Boffelli replaces Matias Moroni on the left wing.
Argentina: Joaquin Tuculet, Ramiro Moyano, Matias Orlando, Jeronimo de la Fuente, Emiliano Boffelli, Nicolas Sanchez, Martin Landajo; Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Agustin Creevy, Enrique Pieretto, Guido Petti, Tomas Lavanini, Pablo Matera, Tomas Lezana, Leonardo Senatore
Replacements: Julian Montoya, Lucas Noguera, Ramiro Herrera, Marcos Kremer, Javier Ortega Desio, Tomas Cubelli, Juan Martin Hernandez, Matias Moroni
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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