Los Pumas reveal strong team for high-flying Boks
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma has named his team to face the Springboks in this Saturday’s Rugby Championship encounter at the Nelson Mandela Stadium.
The Los Pumas will be captained by hooker Julian Montoya with former skipper and loose forward Pablo Matera also in the starting XV.
Los Pumas face huge challenges ahead of the 11th season of the Rugby Championship, with its squad scattered around – mostly in Europe – and Ledesma only managing to get most of his players together on Monday in Port Elizabeth, the venue for the two Tests against the Springboks.
From there, they will travel to Auckland and Sydney.
Fullback Emiliano Boffelli and loose head prop Facundo Gigena were unable to travel due to COVID-19 related issues and will join the team at a later date.
First-choice scrumhalf Tomás Cubelli was injured with his new club in France, Biarritz, and was operated on only a few days ago.
Consequently, Santiago Carreras will don the no.15 jersey against the Boks.
While scrumhalf Felipe Ezcurra will partner with veteran Nicolas Sanchez as this Saturday’s halfback pair.
Argentina: 15 Santiago Carreras, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Santiago Chocobares, 12 Jerónimo De La Fuente, 11 Matías Moroni, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Felipe Ezcurra, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 7 Facundo Isa, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Marco Kremer, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela,2 Julian Montoya (Captain), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro.
Replacemetbs:16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Carlos Muzzio, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Tomas Lavanini, 20 Matias Alemanno, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Domingo Miotti, 23 Sebastian Cancelliere
Date: Saturday, August 14
Venue: Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha
Kick-off: 17.05 (12.05 ART; 15.05 GMT)
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), AJ Jacobs (South Africa)
TMO: Tom Foley (Wales)
— Los Pumas (@lospumas) August 12, 2021