Argentina upbeat despite injury setbacks

Editor

Argentina have lost a third player to injury ahead of their Rugby Championship Tests against New Zealand and Argentina.

Centre Jeronimo de la Fuente joins lock Tomas Lavanini and winger Manuel Montero on the sidelines for their away tour. De la Fuente missed Argentina's two Tests against South Africa but was included in the squad for the two Tests Down Under.

But he failed a medical and will be replaced by Gabriel Azcarate, who will make his tournament debut if he gets selected. Nevertheless, los Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade remain positive about his team's prospects in the rest of the tournament after their historic win over South Africa.

"I see the team in good form, more solid… We're going to prepare a strategy to try to beat (New Zealand) as we have always done," Hourcade told Reuters.

"The objective on this tour and in all our matches is to improve our game. We want to correct the things we didn't do well because this tour is the hardest part of this tournament for us.

"We're going to play against the best team in the world, who have just played a great series against Australia, but that doesn't intimidate us, on the contrary it motivates us."

Argentina face the All Blacks, who top the standings after home and away wins over Australia, in Hamilton on September 10 and the Wallabies in Perth a week later.

Squad: Forwards: Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Felipe Arregui, Agustin Creevy (captain), Lucas Noguera Paz, Julian Montoya, Ramiro Herrera, Enrique Pieretto, Matias Alemanno, Guido Petti, Marcos Kremer, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Pablo Matera, Javier Ortega Desio, Leonardo Senatore, Facundo Isa. 
Backs: Martin Landajo, Tomas Cubelli, Felipe Ezcurra, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, Nicolas Sanchez, Santiago Cordero, Ramiro Moyano, Gabriel Azcarate, Juan Martin Hernandez, Matias Moroni, Matias Orlando, Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Joaquin Tuculet.