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Changes are expected from Argentina against Italy. Following on from the 21-8 defeat against England Daniel Hourcade’s side in training today featured alterations. While the team announcement will not be made until Thursday today’s sessions were the finals ones before confirming the lineup.
Today marked day two of the preparation. Hourcade used the opportunity to make four changes from the side which faced England. Of them three were tactical and one was forced upon him due to Tomás Lezana departing to return home to Argentina for family reasons.
Training in the vacant no 8 position today was Juan Manuel Leguizamón. The veteran slotted into the role despite Benjamín Macome having done so in training on Monday. Both Leonardo Senatore and Rodrigo Bruni are also on the roster.
The remainder of the pack in training was unchanged to that which faced England. As such Santiago García Botta, Agustín Creevy and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro formed the front-row, Matías Alemanno and Tomás Lavanini locked the scrum and Marcos Kremer and Pablo Matera joined Leguizamón as the back-row.
In the backs Hourcade demonstrated less faith. Veteran Juan Martín Hernández made way for Nicolás Sánchez at fly half. This saw him reuniting with Martín Landajo in the halves.
Santiago González Iglesias again trained as the starting inside center. This was the case despite Jerónimo de la Fuente now being back to fitness. Matías Orlando joined González Iglesias in the mid-field with Matías Moroni dropping out.
In the back-three Joaquín Tuculet trained at fullback. He did so despite having been yellow carded against England. This is unusual given team protocol is such that players are usually not considered following such a sanction.
Tuculet was joined by Emiliano Boffelli and Sebastián Cancelliere in the back-three formation. Cancelliere was the change, replacing Ramiro Moyano on the right wing position. With no experience playing Super Rugby and scrum-half being Cancelliere’s natural position the move is noteworthy.
Cancelliere has started at both scrum-half and wing for the Argentina XV this year. While on club duty for Hindú his usual position has been wing. The reason being that Jaguar Felipe Ezcurra also plays for Hindú.
ARGENTINA (in training)
1 Santiago García Botta, 2 Agustín Creevy, 3 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 4 Tomás Lavanini, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 12 Santiago González Iglesias, 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Joaquín Tuculet
