Match Preview – Barbarians vs Argentina

The November Internationals have concluded yet there is still one fixture to play. Argentina take-on the Barbarians in London on Saturday in a special attraction to bring to an end 2018’s international activities.

The Barbarians are South African heavy yet are captained by New Zealand’s Wyatt Crockett. The RWC winner will be joined by eight South Africans in the starting line-up and there are also places for players from Australia, Italy, Tonga and Argentina.

Juan Manuel Leguizamón will play against his Jaguares teammates, doing so in a back-row that consists of starting Springboks Siya Kolisi, and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Argentina go into the game with ten changes from last weekend. Six of them come in the backs with Ramiro Moyano being the only starter against Scotland who will be in the run-on team against the Barbarians.

Moyano is joined by Juan Cruz Mallía and Sebastián Cancelliere in the back-three. For Mallía the match will be his first start for Los Pumas. Also earning their first starts are fly half Joaquín Díaz Bonilla and lose head Juan Pablo Zeiss.

Jaguares regulars from 2018 Bautista Ezcurra and Matías Orlando will start in the mid-field. They replace Jerónimo de la Fuente and Matías Moroni while Martín Landajo will get his first Pumas start under Ledesma.

In the forwards Santiago Medrano is the one retained front-rower. Zeiss and Julián Montoya complete the starting front-row. Behind them Tomás Lavanini makes way for Matías Alemanno.

In the back-row Rodrigo Bruni moves from flanker to his natural position of no 8. He joins Tomás Lezana and captain Pablo Matera in the loose forward trio.

Set to make their Pumas debuts are 2018 Pumitas Santiago Grondona, Mayco Vivas, and Santiago Carreras. They all made the tour ahead of Jaguares’ players.

Saturday’s match is to be the third on record between the Barbarians and Argentina. The two prior matches were in 1990 and 2015. The Barbarians won the inaugural fixture 34-22 in Cardiff while Los Pumas were 49-31 winners following RWC 2015.

The Barbarians enter Saturday’s contest as firm favorites. Argentina have had a long year and are not fielding their top line-up for the match. The Barbarians go into the game as favorites to win by 15 points.

TEAMS

BARBARIANS
1 Wyatt Crockett (capt), 2 Schalk Brits, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 4 Luke Jones, 5 Lood de Jager, 6 Siya Kolisi, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 9 Leon Fukofuka, 10 Handré Pollard, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Tom English, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 15 Jack Debreczeni

Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Anton Peikrishvili, 19 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 20 Jordan Taufua, 21 Frank Lomani, 22 Jesse Kriel, 23 Elton Jantjies

ARGENTINA
1 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 2 Julián Montoya, 3 Santiago Medrano, 4 Guido Petti, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Pablo Matera (cpat.), 7 Tomás Lezana, 8 Rodrigo Bruni, 9 Martín Landajo, 10 Joaquín Díaz Bonilla, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Sebastián Cancelliere, 15 Juan Cruz Mallia

Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Lucio Sordoni, 19 Tomás Lavanini, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Tomás Cubelli, 22 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 23 Santiago Carreras

Date: Saturday December 01
Kick-off: 2:30pm (Local), 11:30am (Argentina)
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London, UK
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)