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In round two of the Rugby Championship Argentina play at home against South Africa on Saturday. The fixture is the second of two matches between the sides this year. In game one the Springboks were 34-21 wins in Durban.
In his second match as Head Coach Mario Ledesma had made just one change. It comes in the second-row with Tomás Lavanini replacing Matías Alemanno. It was expected following Lavanini’s impressive performance from the bench in Durban.
There is movement among the replacements. Having joined Los Pumas just this week Facundo Bosch is straight into the mix. The Agen hooker replaces Diego Fortuny who debuted last weekend. Bosch will earn his first Pumas cap as cover for captain Agustín Creevy.
Alemanno trades places with Lavanini in the other forwards alteration. In the backs longtime Daniel Hourcade servants Martín Ladnajo and Santiago González Iglesias have been dropped. The replacement positions on the bench have gone to Tomás Cubelli and the returning Jerónimo de la Fuente. For Cubelli it marks a first cap in 329 days.
South African Head Coach Rassie Erasmus has also kept the faith. 14 of the starting 15 from Durban retain their places. The one change mirrors that of Los Pumas as Franco Mostert has been named in the second-row to partner Eben Etzebeth.
Mostert replaces Pieter-Steph du Toit who drops to the bench. In explaining the alteration, Erasmus pointed out that Mostert is the leading player for the position and that he was rested for round one due to his high volume of involvement in Super Rugby this year.
Erasmus has gone for two changes on the bench. RG Snyman returns as the replacement second-rower which sees du Toit covering flanker and Marvin Orie dropping out. Also named is Wilco Louw who takes over as a replacement prop from Thomas du Toit.
Saturday’s fixture is to be the 28th test match between Argentina and South Africa. Of the prior 27 matches the Springboks have 24 wins compared to Argentina’s 2. In the first ever Rugby Championship match in Argentina the teams competed to a 16-16 draw. That match was also played in Mendoza.
History sees South Africa having a notable advantage though prior to the Rugby Championship the only result which was not a Pumas defeat was the 1982 match in which Argentina played as ‘South America’ due to apartheid. Argentina’s two wins came in 2015 and 2016 in Durban and Salta.
South Africa enter the match as heavy favorites. They scored 6 tries to 3 last weekend and were far from playing at their peak. A similar scoreline is projected for Mendoza making South Africa favorites to win by 13 points.
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matías Moroni, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Agustín Creevy (capt.), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
Replacements: 16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Santiago García Botta, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Matías Alemanno, 20 Tomás Lezana, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 23 Juan Cruz Mallía
SOUTH AFRICA
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Makazole Mapimpi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 6 Francois Louw, 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Lionel Mapoe, 23 Damian Willemse
Date: Saturday August 25
Kick-off: 4:10pm (Argentina)
Venue: Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
