Juan Martin Hernández: Could face NZ
Argentina coach Santiago Phelan has included fly-half Juan Martin Hernández in his 28-man squad to face New Zealand and Australia in the Rugby Championship.
Hernández was in the Pumas' starting XV in their 27-6 loss to South Africa in their tournament opener in Cape Town.
The Racing Metro stalwart, however, missed the historic 16-16 draw in the return match with the Springboks in Mendoza last week due to a groin injury sustained at training.
Hernández is joined in the squad by Agustin Creevy, Juan Manuel Leguizamón, Rafael Carballo and Maximiliano Bustos but Alvaro Galindo was not considered for selection due to injury.
Argentina captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe believes he team can build on last week's impressive performance against the Springboks when they face the All Blacks in Wellington next week.
"In the World Cup the boys played against New Zealand and it was an extremely demanding game," he said.
"We will try to be more aggressive on defence, to not allow them to develop as many phases.
"We came to grow and we want to go one step further on Saturday."
Argentina squad: Horacio Agulla, Patricio Albacete, Marcos Ayerza, Marcelo Bosch, Martín Bustos Moyano, Maximiliano Bustos, Gonzalo Camacho, Rafael Carballo, Manuel Carizza, Agustín Creevy, Julio Farías, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Santiago Fernández, Juan Figallo, Lucas González Amorosino, Eusebio Guiñazú, Juan Martín Hernández, Juan Imhoff, Martín Landajo, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Tomás Leonardi, Juan Pablo Orlandi, Martín Rodríguez, Rodrigo Roncero, Federico Nicolás Sánchez, Leonardo Senatore, Tomás Vallejos Cinalli, Nicolás Vergallo.
Comments
JP2PUMAS says...
Hey melkdave i like your idea of drafting Hernandez giving space to Sanchez to play.
But Santiago Fernandez is doing a great job as 12 and Phelan needs a flyhalf on the bench, dont think will be workable.
Posted 09:10 02nd September 2012
GoWalesGo says...
Overrated.
I thought they actually looked better with Sanchez, at least he didn't boot away every second.
Posted 19:06 01st September 2012
Kawasakifreak says...
Pumas best player imo.
Needs better support to shine.
Posted 18:17 01st September 2012
melkdave says...
Good news for the pumas ,but i wonder if playing Hernandez at 10 would be correct ,given how Sanchez played ,last weekend.Im thinking he would be better at12 myself ,as N.Sanchez is a much better running FH,and imo offers more options.Food for thought anyway.
Posted 14:30 01st September 2012