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Argentina host Australia in Mendoza on Saturday. The match will be the first Rugby Championship fixture in Argentina since 2019. It will also be Los Pumas‘ first home fixture against the Wallabies since 2018. Since then the Wallabies have had five consecutive home matches against the South Americans.
Michael Cheika coached Australia to a famous comeback win over Argentina in Salta in 2018. Four years on the role is reversed as the Australian is now head coach of Los Pumas against the Wallabies. Cheika’s first assignment was a suceess; Argentina completed a series win over Scotland last month. Meanwhile, Australia fell to a home series loss against England.
Unlike the 2020 and 2021 Rugby Championships, the 2022 edition will be played in multiple countries. Yet, it is not a return to the format from 2012-2019. Argentina’s two matches against Australia in 2022 will be home matches while both games against the All Blacks will be in New Zealand and the series against the Springboks will be shared between South Africa and Argentina.
In preparing for the new model, teams will have less travel. The concept brings with it two extra days of preparation between certain matches. The Argentina vs Australia matches will be in Mendoza and San Juan seven days apart. Separated by 170km, the rugby matches ought to be of a high standard in both rounds.
Argentina welcome back captain Julián Montoya. He was absent from the final test match against Scotland. He leads the team from hooker while veteran Tomás Cubelli is back to start at scrum-half Cubelli missed the Scotland series entirely through injury. He will be up against some players he knows well as he previously played Super Rugby in Australia for the Brumbies.
Cubelli will join Santiago Carreras in the halves. Both Carreras and Nicolás Sánchez trained at fly half on Wednesday. The Córdoba player will start with the Tucumán fly half officially out with a minor injury. Carreras is a strong defender as are the veteran mid-fielders Jerónimo del la Fuente and Matías Orlando.
Michael Cheika will have flair outwide with Santiago Cordero and Emiliano Boffelli having been outstanding performers for Bordeaux and Edinburgh this past season. Toulouse utility Juan Cruz Mallía starts the test match at fullback.
The forwards see a big front-five. Veterans props Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro and Francisco Gómez Kodela join Montoya up front with Tomás Lavanini and Matías Alemanno locking the scrum. Marcos Kremer and Juan Martín González are both tall flankers with high workrates while Pablo Matera will play N8.
The replacements see two flankers; Santiago Grondona and Rodrigo Bruni will cover positions 6 to 8 with Kremer moving to lock when required. Elsewhere, Lautaro Bazán Vélez is prefered to Gonzalo Bertranou as the back-up scrum-half while Tomás Albornoz is awaiting his test debut as the replacement fly half.
Two players are also in line to debut for Australia. Dave Rennie has named the uncapped Jed Holloway to start in the second-row and for Matt Gibbon to cover loose head prop from the bench. Holloway joins Matt Philip in what is a more mobile locking combination than that starting for Argentina.
The Wallabies were scheduled to be captained by Michael Hooper. The match was to be his 122nd test match, quite remarkable considering he is 30-years-of-age. Instead, Australia will be led by James Slipper. Hooper returned to Australia and will sit out the matches against Los Pumas.
Prop James Slipper is also vastly experienced with 117 caps. No Puma is yet to reach the mark of 100 caps. Two Argentines passed the mark for Italy, though one of them may not have been eligible.
The team named by Cheika to face the Wallabies has a different structure to that which he assembled for Rugby World Cups 2015 and 2019. For instance, he had dual play-makers at fly half and inside center but Los Pumas will not line-up as such.
Some similarities in style are clear. Matera at N8 is similar to former Wallaby flanker David Pocock and finishers among the backline are evident in Cheika’s team for Mendoza.
Win, lose or draw the teams will meet again next weekend in San Juan. Thinking is focused on the here and the now though; indeed, the long and demanding Rugby Championship will ask many questions from each week to the next. Both teams will be looking for a strong start at the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
TEAMS
ARGENTINA
1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 2 Julián Montoya (capt.), 3 Francisco Gómez Kodela, 4 Tomás Lavanini, 5 Matías Alemanno, 6 Juan Martín González, 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Pablo Matera, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Emiliano Boffelli, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 13 Matías Orlando, 14 Santiago Cordero, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Thomas Gallo, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Santiago Grondona, 20 Rodrigo Bruni, 21 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 22 Tomás Albornoz, 23 Matías Moroni
AUSTRALIA
1 James Slipper (capt.), 2 Folau Fainga’a, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 4 Darcy Smith, 5 Matt Phillip, 6 Jed Holloway, 7 Fraser McReight, 8 Rob Valentini, 9 Nic White, 10 Quade Cooper, 11 Marika Koroibete, 12 Hunter Paisami, 13 Len Ikitau, 14 Jordan Petaia, 15 Tom Wright
Replacements: 16 Lachlan Lonergan, 17 Matt Gibbon, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Nick Frost, 20 Rob Leota, 21 Pete Samu, 22 Jake Gordon, 23 Reece Hodge
Date: Saturday, August 06
Kickoff: 4:05pm (AR)
Venue: Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza (AR)
Referee: Mike Adamson (UK)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (UK); Chris Busby (IR)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (ZA)
Broadcasts: ESPN, Star+ (Argentina)
RECENT RESULTS
2021/10/02 – Australia 32, Argentina 17 (Gold Coast, AU)
2021/09/25 – Australia 27, Argentina 08 (Townsville, AU)
2020/12/05 – Australia 16, Argentina 16 (Sydney, AU)
2020/11/21 – Australia 15, Argentina 15 (Newcastle, AU)
2019/07/27 – Australia 19, Argentina 10 (Brisbane, AU)
2018/10/06 – Argentina 34, Australia 45 (Salta, AR)
2018/09/15 – Australia 19, Argentina 23 (Gold Coast, AU)
2017/10/07 – Argentina 20, Australia 37 (Mendoza, AR)
2017/09/16 – Australia 45, Argentina 20 (Canberra, AU)
2016/10/08 – Argentina 21, Australia 33 (London, UK)
2016/09/17 – Australia 36, Argentina 20 (Perth, AU)
2015/10/25 – Australia 29, Argentina 15 (London, UK)
2015/07/25 – Argentina 9, Australia 34 (Mendoza, AR)
OVERALL RESULTS
Australia Wins 27
Argentina Wins 6
Draws 3
