Argentina change three for England showdown
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Argentina head coach Michael Cheika has made three changes to his starting XV from last week’s loss to New Zealand for the World Cup 2023 bronze final against England at Stade de France on Friday.
There is one change in the pack with Pedro Rubiolo replacing Tomas Lavanini in the second row.
Meanwhile, in the backline, Tomás Cubelli comes in for Gonzalo Bertranou at scrumhalf.
The other change is in the midfield where Jeronimo de la Fuente takes over from Santiago Chocobares at inside centre.
Cheika has named 19 players in the matchday team from the 23 who lost to England in the opening round – the only new faces are Rubiolo in the second row, Facundo Isa at No.8, De la Fuente at inside centre and Nicolas Sanchez on the bench.
Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez are the only two Los Pumas players to have started every match at RWC 2023. Indeed, Kremer has played the most minutes of any player at RWC 2023 (451).
This will be Julián Montoya’s sixth RWC match as captain – only Agustin Pichot has led Los Pumas in more games at this tournament (eight), and captained them to their bronze final victory in 2007.
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Julian Montoya (captain), 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Rodrigo Bruno, 21 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 22 Nicholas Sanchez, 23 Matias Moroni.
Date: Friday, October 27
Venue: Stade de France, Saint-Denis
Kick-off: 21.00 (19.00 GMT; 20.00 UK & Ireland time; 16.00 ART)
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Nika Amashukeli (England), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
