Cubelli returns to starting XV - Argentina name team to play England
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Argentina head coach Michael Cheika has made three changes to his starting XV from last week’s loss to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup 2023 bronze final against England at Stade de France on Friday, 27 October. Pedro Rubiolo replaces Tomas Lavanini in the second-row, Tomás Cubelli (pictured) comes in for Gonzalo Bertranou at scrum-half and Jeronimo de la Fuente takes over from Santiago Chocobares at inside-centre.
1 Thomas Gallo
2 Julian Montoya (c)
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal
5 Pedro Rubiolo
6 Juan Martin Gonzalez
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Facundo Isa
9 Tomas Cubelli
10 Santiago Carreras
11 Mateo Carreras
12 Jeronimo de la Fuente
13 Lucio Cinti
14 Emiliano Boffelli
15 Juan Cruz Mallia
Replacements:
16 Agustín Creevy
17 Joel Sclavi
18 Eduardo Bello
19 Matias Alemanno
20 Rodrigo Bruni
21 Lautaro Bazan Velez
22 Nicolas Sanchez
23 Matías Moroni
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Head coach Michael Cheika has named 19 players in the match-day team from the 23 who lost to England in the opening round – the only new faces are Pedro Rubiolo in the second-row, Facundo Isa at number eight, Jeronimo de la Fuente at inside-centre and Nicolas Sanchez on the bench.
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Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez are the only two Los Pumas players to have started every match at RWC 2023. Indeed, Kremer has played the most minutes of any player at RWC 2023 (451).
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This will be Julián Montoya’s sixth RWC match as captain – only Agustin Pichot has led Los Pumas in more games at this tournament (8), and captained them to their bronze final victory in 2007.
- This will be the first time Tomás Cubelli has played England since RWC 2019. He has never tasted victory against them, losing all four career matches.
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Jeronimo de la Fuente will make just his second appearance at RWC 2023 after captaining the team against Chile in round four.
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Emiliano Boffelli is Los Pumas’ leading point-scorer at RWC 2023 with 57 points, and only the fourth Argentine to score a half-century of points in a single tournament after Gonzalo Quesada’s 102 points in 1999, Felipe Contepomi’s 91 points in 2007 and Nicolás Sanchez’s 97 points at RWC 2015. He scored 25 of Argentina’s 30 points in their last victory against England in 2022.
