Argentina have named their side to face the Springboks in their Rugby Championship clash at King’s Park in Durban on Saturday.Coach Daniel Hourcade made 11 changes to the match day squad that lost to the Wallabies in Mendoza two weekends ago.
Former Sharks flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez returns to Durban and will provide experience and an educated boot for the Pumas.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer had said earlier in the week that he expects a far more expansive approach from an Argentina side that is no longer simply about utilising their strong pack, and Hourcade agreed.
“Yes, that is the idea of our game plan,” said the Pumas coach.
“This is what we are going to try even though sometimes the opposite side that we’ve had in this tournament doesn’t allow us to play like that. But that is what we want to try and do.”
The Pumas have never beaten the Boks, and Hourcade said that doing so on Saturday would be difficult.
“We always play to win the game but we also know that this is our third game of the year,” said Hourcade.
“We have had a big rotation between the games. Even though we are improving game by game we are looking after a lot of players, but hopefully we will get it right on Saturday.
“They (Springboks) are a great team. They are in another part of their season. They arrive here after playing Super Rugby and the principle difference with us is that we have had many players come from Europe and they are in their pre-season.”
Kick-off is at 17:05.
Teams:
South Africa:
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Jesse Kriel, 13 Jean de Villiers (captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Schalk Burger, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Heinrich Brussow, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Substitutes: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Lwazi Mvovo
Argentina
15-Joaquín Tuculet, 14-Horacio Agulla, 13-Marcelo Bosch, 12-Jerónimo De la Fuente, 11-Juan Imhoff, 10-Juan Martín Hernández, 9-Tomas Cubelli, 8-Leonardo Senatore, 7-Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6-Pablo Matera, 5-Tomás Lavanini, 4-Guido Petti Pagadizaba, 3-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2-Agustín Creevy (captain), 1-Marcos Ayerza
Substitutes: 16-Julián Montoya, 17-Lucas Noguera, 18-Matías Díaz, 19-Matías Alemanno, 20-Tomás Lezana, 21-Martín Landajo, 22-Santiago González Iglesias, 23-Lucas González Amorosino
