Argentina name strong team to face the Wallabies

On Saturday August 31, Los Pumas and the Wallabies will play the first of two matches that will played in Argentina, corresponding to the Rugby Championship. The UNO stadium of Estudiantes de La Plata will host the the first of the two tests while the second test and fourth fixture of the tournament will take place on September 7, at Colón de Santa Fe.

After 10 years, La Plata will once again host Los Pumas for the Rugby Championship; the three matches played in the city were against the All Blacks at the Único stadium, the last being in 2014 with a 13-34 defeat. In the same tournament, Argentina and Australia faced each other on 21 occasions, with 4 wins for Los Pumas (the rival they beat the most times in that tournament), 2 draws and 15 losses. The player with the most appearances is Agustín Creevy with 16 matches and the tryman is Thomas Gallo with 4 tries; the Tucuman scored twice in the 17-32 defeat in Gold Coast in 2021 and in the memorable 48-17 victory in San Juan in 2022. The last meeting between both teams was in the 2023 Rugby Championship in Sydney, with a 34-31 victory for Los Pumas.

Lucio Cinti, one of the players from La Plata, talked about what it will be like to play in his city: “It is a very nice city, it is my home, where I always like to return. The Estudiantes stadium is very nice, it is new, it is going to be something special, a lot of people from the club (La Plata Rugby Club) will go, from all over the country and it will be unique.”

For this match, Felipe Contepomi will make three changes to the XV that played the last match against the All Blacks in Auckland two weeks ago: Joel Sclavi comes on in place of Lucio Sordoni; Franco Molina returns to the second row and Marcos Kremer moves to third in place of Joaquín Oviedo; and Santiago Cordero returns to the starting lineup in place of the injured Matías Moroni. On the substitutes' bench, Guido Petti and Santiago Grondona stand out, who, if they come on, will play their first match with the national team so far this year.

Another new feature is the return of Agustín Creevy to the team as part of the 23; the player with the most caps in history with 109 has decided to end his career with Los Pumas and will play his last match with the national team in La Plata - his hometown. Creevy is the Argentine player with the most caps in World Cups (he played 22 in 4 RWCs) and the one who wore the captain's armband the most times (51 tests between 2014 and 2018).

Below are the players chosen to face Australia in La Plata:

1.  GALLO , Thomas (28 caps)

2.  MONTOYA , Julian (98 caps) Captain

3.  SCLAVI , Joel (20 caps)

4.  MOLINA , Franco (5 caps)

5.  RUBIOLO , Pedro (14 caps)

6.  MATERA , Pablo (103 caps) Vice-captain

7.  KREMER,  Marcos (69 caps)

8.  GONZALEZ , Juan Martin (33 caps)

9.  BERTRANOU , Gonzalo (62 chapters)

10.  RACES , Santiago (47 caps)

11.  RACES , Matthew (22 caps)

12.  CHOCOBARES,  Santiago (23 caps)

13.  CINTI , Lucio (25 caps)

14.  LAMB , Santiago (52 caps)

15.  MALLÍA , Juan Cruz (35 caps) Vice-captain

Finishers

16.  CREEVY , Agustin (109 caps)

17.  VIVAS , Mayco (26 caps)

18.  BELLO , Eduardo (25 caps)

19.  PETTI , Guido (82 caps)

20.  LAVANINI , Tomás (88 chapters)

21.  GRONDONA , Santiago (15 caps)

22. BAZAN VELEZ,  Lautaro (16 caps)

23.  ALBORNOZ , Thomas (10 caps)

FIXTURE RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP VISA BANK MACRO

Matchday 1 –  New Zealand 30 vs Los Pumas 38  , in Wellington

Matchday 2 – New Zealand 42 vs Los Pumas 10 , in Auckland

Date 3 – August 31               Los Pumas vs Australia , in La Plata

UNO Stadium of Estudiantes de La Plata, at 7:00 p.m.

Date 4 – 7 September          Los Pumas vs Australia , in Santa Fe

Santa Fe Colon Stadium, at 4:00 p.m.

Date 5 – September 21        Los Pumas vs South Africa , in Santiago del Estero

Unique Mother of Cities Stadium, at 6:00 p.m.

Date 6 – September 28        South Africa vs Los Pumas , in Nelspruit

Mbombela Stadium, at 12:05 in our country

THE PUMAS IN THE RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP

These are the historical statistics of the Argentine national team in this tournament, which began in 2012:

Matches 63      

Triumphs 10        

Draws 3        

Defeats 50  

ARGENTINA vs AUSTRALIA, AT THE RCH

Matches 21   

Triumphs 4         

Draws 2          

Defeats 15

COMPLETE HISTORY AGAINST AUSTRALIA

Matches: 39 Wins: 8 Draws: 3 Losses: 28

10/27/1979 Pumas 24 vs. Australia 13, in Buenos Aires (Ferro)

03/11/1979 Pumas 12 vs. Australia 17, in Buenos Aires (Ferro)

31/07/1983 Australia 3 vs. Los Pumas 18, in Brisbane

07/08/1983 Australia 29 vs. Los Pumas 13, in Sydney

06/07/1986 Australia 39 vs. Los Pumas 19. in Brisbane

12/07/1986 Australia 26 vs. Los Pumas 0, in Sydney

10/31/1987 Pumas 19 vs. Australia 19, in Buenos Aires (Vélez)

07/11/1987 Pumas 27 vs. Australia 19, in Buenos Aires (Vélez)

04/10/1991 Pumas 19 vs. Australia 32, in Llanelli (RWC)

04/30/1995 Australia 53 vs. Los Pumas 7, in Brisbane

06/05/1995 Australia 30 vs. Los Pumas 13, in Sydney

01/11/1997 Pumas 15 vs. Australia 23, in Buenos Aires (Ferro)

08/11/1997 Pumas 18 vs. Australia 16, in Buenos Aires (Ferro)

17/06/2000 Australia 53 vs. Los Pumas 6, in Brisbane

24/06/2000 Australia 32 vs. Los Pumas 25, in Canberra

02/11/2002 Pumas 6 vs. Australia 17, in Buenos Aires (River Plate)

10/10/2003 Australia 24 vs. Los Pumas 8, in Sydney (RWC)

15/09/2012 Australia 23 vs Los Pumas 19, in Gold Coast

06/10/2012 Pumas 19 vs. Australia 25, in Rosario

14/09/2013 Australia 14 vs. Los Pumas 13, in Perth

05/10/2013 Pumas 17 vs. Australia 54, in Rosario

13/09/2014 Australia 32 vs. Los Pumas 25, in Gold Coast

04/10/2014 Pumas 21 vs. Australia 17, in Mendoza

25/07/2015 Pumas 9 vs Australia 34, in Mendoza

25/10/2015 Australia 29 vs. Los Pumas 15, at Twickenham (RWC)

17/09/2016 Australia 36 vs. Los Pumas 20, in Perth

08/10/2016 Pumas 21 vs. Australia 33, at Twickenham

16/09/2017 Australia 45 vs. Los Pumas 20, in Canberra

07/10/2017 Pumas 20 vs. Australia 37, in Mendoza

09/15/2018 Australia 19 vs. Los Pumas 23, in Gold Coast

06/10/2018 Pumas 34 vs. Australia 45, in Salta

27/07/2019 Australia 16 vs. Los Pumas 10, in Brisbane

21/11/2020 Australia 15 vs. Los Pumas 15, in Newcastle

05/12/2020 Australia 16 vs. Los Pumas 16, in Sydney

25/09/2021 Australia 27 vs. Los Pumas 8, in Townsville

02/10/2021 Pumas 17 vs. Australia 32, in Gold Coast

06/08/2022 Pumas 26 vs. Australia 41, in Mendoza

08/13/2022 Pumas 48 vs Australia 17, in San Juan

15/07/2023 Australia 31 vs Los Pumas 34, in Sydney