Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi made three changes to his starting lineup to face the Springboks in Saturday’s Rugby Championship Round Five clash in Santiago del Estero at 23:00 (SA Time).
All the changes were made up front. There is a new second row combination with Pedro Rubiolo and Franco Molina replacing Tomas Lavanini and Guido Petti.
The other change is in the back row where Joaquin Oviedo comes in for Juan Martin Gonzalez.
If he comes off the bench, Santiago Carreras will play for his 50th cap for Los Pumas.
Meanwhile, Pedro Delgado is included on the bench and could make his debut in a Los Pumas shirt.
“I am very happy to be at Los Pumas. The truth is that I have adapted well to the squad, they welcomed me very well and it would be a dream to be able to play. I think the team is doing very well, we trained very well during the week and we are very focused on what we have to do. South Africa is the two-time world champion, they have a very strong pack of forwards but we are focused on ourselves, training hard during the week and focused on being able to play a good match.”
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Joaquin Oviedo, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Franco Molina, 3 Joel Sclavi, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Thomas Gallo. Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Ignacio Calles, 18 Pedro Delgado, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 21 Gonzalo Garcia, 22 Santiago Carreras, 23 Matias Moroni.
