Argentina coach Santiago Phelan finalised his replacements for Saturday's Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand.
Phelan revealed the Pumas' starting line-up on Tuesday, but had delayed naming his bench for this weekend's Test with the All Blacks.
The visitors are reinforced by the return of fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez and flanker Juan Manuel Leguizamon who missed the 16-16 draw with South Africa and bring the experience of 73 joint Test appearances to the starting XV.
Argentina will carry a degree of confidence with them from Mendoza where they had the better of South Africa for much of the game after opening with a 27-6 defeat to the Springboks in Cape Town.
Phelan said the Rugby Championship was a learning experience for Argentina which had previously lacked top flight international competition.
"This championship is not the World Cup but the level of toughness is bigger because at the World Cup you don't have each game against the best teams in the world and you don't have this travel," said Phelan.
"We want to grow up like a team. We want to improve our play with the ball, our attack system, our organisation in defence and keep developing players at this level - to play with the intensity that New Zealand and Australia, South Africa play at.
"Before this we'd play six games in a year, three in June, three in November," he added, saying the new championship "is very good for us."
Argentina: 15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Juan Martin Hernandez, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (c), 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Eusebio Guinazu, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19 Leonardo Senatore, 20 Tomás Leonardi, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino.
Comments
melkdave says...
@zulusaar56
Thanks for the info,didnt realise N.Sanchez was injured,and your suggestion also holds alot of merit,nice isnt it to see that not only the ABs have options ,but also the pumas,when players are fit.Also the pumas now have a very good U20s squad ,which i think we will see more players from in the elite squad in the next few years.Argentian rugby is looking pretty good imho atm .
Posted 18:45 06th September 2012
zulusaar56 says...
Melkdave, I think Sanchez was ruled out through injury. If he had been fit I'm sure he would have been involved. If he was fit another option would have been to play Hernandez at 15 and move Rodriguez into the centre.
Posted 16:30 06th September 2012
melkdave says...
No N.Sanchez in the 22 ,i must say i find that very surprising,as i personnally thought he was outstanding against the bokke.I would have played him at 10 myself and moved Herandez to 12 and S.Fernandez to 13.Espically as id be looking more for a running game and N.Sanchez offers that,where the pumas keep the ball for long periods of play.Rather than kick and chase to a very good NZ back 3 Which Herandez looks likely to do..
Posted 14:00 06th September 2012