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A blend of experience and youth will look to topple the All Blacks this Sunday as Argentina opens up its Rugby World Cup campaign with an attacking side to take on the reigning world champions at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Rather than looking to strategically put the defensive pieces in place to hold off the world’s top side Head Coach Daniel Hourcade is embracing the challenge by fielding an attacking team that mixes share speed out wide with a mobile and very dangerous forward pack.
Leading from the front will be captain Agustín Creevy whose rise to the top has been remarkable given he converted from back-row to hooker after having played professional rugby for Biarritz in the former position. Now regarded as one of the best players in his position, Creevy will join Marcos Ayerza and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro to form a formidable front-row.
Both Ayerza and Creevy have played in Rugby World Cups before but 2015 marks a first as both had been replacements four years ago for the then veterans Rodrigo Roncero and Mario Ledesma. For Ayerza it is to be a third World Cup but a first as hid country’s top tighthead prop.
Like Tetaz Chaparro the second-row combination of Guido Petti and Tomás Lavanini is new. The young pair both watched Argentina face the All Blacks in the 2011 Quarter Final as teenagers. Indeed, such is their youth that Lavanini was in Los Pumitas in 2013 and Petti was in 2014. Their rapid rise is such that both have already defeated France and South Africa in the cities of Paris and Durban.
Another young pup, Pablo Matera will start on the side of the scrum. The highly mobile back-rower will join veterans Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe and Leonardo Senatore in the back-row. The three are all vastly different players which, combined, gives the South Americans plenty of attacking options both from the set-piece and broken play. It also enables Fernández Lobbe to operate as the specialist fetcher.
Tomás Cubelli will command the pack and look to continue his strong relationship with Senatore from the back of the scrum. The 26 year old is arguably Argentina’s best scrumhalf since Agustín Pichot and has a superior attacking game to those involved in the previous World Cup. He combination with Nicolás Sánchez is also one to have impressed.
Sánchez is to be one of three play-makers starting in the back-line. Joining him will be centers Juan Martín Hernández and Marcelo Bosch, two players to have gone through the system as fly halves only to be converted as adults while playing professional rugby in France.
Outwide Hourcade has gone for his biggest attacking weapons with the hat-trick hero vs South Africa, Juan Imhoff starting together with Santiago Cordero as the wingers. Both players are known for their speed and finishing abilities, the key attributes to a wingers play. The starting fullback, Joaquín Tuculet, is another threatening player and his place at fullback ensures Argentina will have plenty of counter-attacking and finishing power to take on the number one team in the world.
Argentina
1 Marcos Ayerza, Agustín Creevy, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Juan Imhoff, 12 Juan Martín Hernández, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15 Joaquín Tuculet
16 Julián Montoya, 17 Lucas Noguera, 18 Ramino Herrera, 19 Mariano Galarza, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Jeronimo De La Fuente, 23 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino
