1
Six changes for Argentina, uncapped U20 also named on their bench
By Liam Heagney
Argentina have named a team to face New Zealand showing six changes from their recent win over Uruguay. Los Pumas followed up their drawn series versus France with a record 79-5 victory over Uruguay at Punta del Este on July 20 and they have now made two alterations to their pack and four in the backline for their opening-round match of The Rugby Championship in Wellington.
Both changes in the pack are in the back row with Pablo Matera returning to skipper from blindside in place of Joaquin Moro and Juan Martin Gonzalez named at No8 instead of Joaquin Oviedo.
In the backs, Santiago Carreras is at fly-half for Tomas Albornoz. Lucio Cinti is at midfield for Jeronimo de la Fuente, Matias Moroni takes over from Ignacio Mendy on the right wing while Juan Cruz Mallia is at full-back for Santiago Cordero.
An exciting bench development is the inclusion of the uncapped Efrain Elias, the new Toulouse recruit who impressively skippered Argentina to a fifth-place finish at the recent World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town.
Argentina (vs New Zealand, Saturday)
1. GALLO Thomas (26 caps)
2. RUIZ Ignacio (10 caps)
3. BELLO Eduardo (24 caps)
4. MOLINA Franco (3 caps)
5. RUBIOLO Pedro (12 caps)
6. MATERA Pablo (101 caps, captain)
7. KREMER Marcos (67 caps, vice-captain)
8. GONZALEZ Juan Martin (31 caps)
9. BERTRANOU Gonzalo (60 caps)
10. CARRERAS Santiago (45 caps)
11. CARRERAS Mateo (20 caps)
12. CHOCOBARES Santiago (21 caps)
13. CINTI Lucio (23 caps)
14. MORONI Matias (82 caps)
15. MALLIA Juan Cruz (33 caps, vice-captain)
Replacements:
16. CREEVY Agustin (108 caps)
17. VIVAS Mayco (24 caps)
18. SCLAVI Joel (18 caps)
19. ELIAS Efrain (uncapped)
20. LAVANINI Tomas (86 caps)
21. OVIEDO Joaquin (5 caps)
22. BAZAN VELEZ Lautaro (15 caps)
23. ALBORNOZ Thomas (8 caps)
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Wallaby reacts to the return of All Blacks enforcer Ethan de Groot
3
URC title-winning boss Franco Smith predicts this season's dark horses
4
Why South Africans are so sought after around the world
5
Latest Comments
Hmm, just the standard things I don't see then. These test matches have shown a return to a very aggressive kicking game for sure, perhaps thats the picture that is driving recent talk. Excluding his SR form/tyle, it's still better than Mo'unga, and more to the point (Jacko!), Beauden's, who repeatedly could not execute a kick pass to save themselves. Mo'unga should have kicked for the line all day in the WC Final, that is not a mistake Damien McKenzie would make.
This is also some of the best general attack, phase upon phase of attacks, that I have seen the ABs produce in years. I give ALL the credit in setting that temp to Dmac. Just last week alone he made a couple of outrageous plays to put his backline away, to put that final piece in the puzzle that had been missing for years. Not that I didn't think Richie wasn't a great strike weapon, he plays like a match winning league five eight and still did enough to win that WC for NZ.
Go to commentsYes! And yes again!
They need the sort of loss that ends a few careers. Big time.
Go to comments