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El Mago has given a boost for Argentina. The veteran play-maker, Juan Martín Hernández, is back to fitness and training freely with Los Pumas. Argentina are preparing to face Australia in Canberra on Saturday.
Hernández was ruled out of facing New Zealand last weekend. In his place Nicolás Sánchez started at fly half and Santiago González Iglesias was the option at pivot. Changes are now likely for Canberra with Hernández expected to be named in the match-day 23.
Also missing out on playing in New Plymouth was Ramiro Herrera. The Tight Head prop is not yet fully-fit. He, however, was able to train in Canberra on Tuesday. With him not participating fully the needs of the team saw Enrique Pieretto training as the starting Tight-Head.
The roster welcomed Felipe Arregui who joined the team upon arrival from Argentina. He is emergency cover for Herrera and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, the latter of whom did not train fully on Tuesday.
Herrera and Tetaz Chaparro are both being monitored for their potential involvement against the Wallabies. Also not training fully on Tuesday were both Agustín Creevy and Pablo Matera. They sat out training to fully recover. Both are to be declared fit to play in Canberra.
Due to the needs of individual players Daniel Hourcade fielded an altered line-up in training on Tuesday. The front-row was made-up of Lucas Noguera Paz, Julián Montoya and Enrique Pieretto. Of the three the latter two were filling-in and are not expected to start.
The second-row was unchanged with Guido Petti and Matías Alemanno training as the starting combination. In the back-row Tomás Lezana took over from Matera to join Javier Ortega Desio as the flankers. At No 8 veteran Juan Manuel Leguizamón trained ahead of Benjamín Macome.
In the backs Tomás Cubelli and Nicolás Sánchez were again the preferred option. Martín Landajo also received time at scrum-half. The mid-field was again altered with Jerónimo de la Fuente being joined by Matías Orlando.
In the back-three the absence of Joaquín Tuculet means a new fullback. Training in the position was Emiliano Boffelli. The Duendes outside back has been playing wing thus far for Los Pumas. Both wings were changed in training with Ramiro Moyano stepping-in for Santiago Cordero and Matías Moroni moving from center to replace Bofelli.
