Pumas deploy heavy artillery for Springboks opener

Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma has named his team to face the Springboks in this Saturday’s Rugby Championship encounter at the Nelson Mandela Stadium.

The Los Pumas will be captained by hooker Julian Montoya with former skipper and loose forward Pablo Matera also in the starting XV.

Los Pumas face huge challenges ahead of the 11th season of the Rugby Championship, with its squad scattered around – mostly in Europe – and Ledesma only managing to get most of his players together on Monday in Port Elizabeth, the venue for the two Tests against the Springboks.

From there, they will travel to Auckland and Sydney. Fullback Emiliano Boffelli and loose head prop Facundo Gigena were unable to travel due to COVID-19 related issues and will join the team at a later date.

First-choice scrumhalf Tomás Cubelli was injured with his new club in France, Biarritz, and was operated on only a few days ago.

Consequently, Santiago Carreras will don the no.15 jersey against the Boks.

While scrumhalf Felipe Ezcurra will partner with veteran Nicolas Sanchez as this Saturday’s halfback pair.

LOS PUMAS: 15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Santiago Chocobares, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 11 Matías Moroni, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 7 Facundo Isa, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Marcos Kremer, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 2 Julián Montoya (c), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro

REPLACEMENTS: 16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Carlos Muzzio, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Tomás Lavanini, 20 Matías Alemanno, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Domingo Miotti, 23 Sebastian Cancelliere

SPRINGBOKS:

15 Damian Willemse, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Aphelele Fassi, 10 Elton Jantjies (vice-captain), 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ox Nché

REPLACEMENTS: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Marvin Orie, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Dan du Preez, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Morné Steyn

Date: Saturday, August 14

Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha

Kick-off: 17.05 (12.05 ART; 15.05 GMT)

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), AJ Jacobs (South Africa)

TMO: Tom Foley (Wales)