Argentina name strong side to face Ireland with 12 changes from draw with Australia

Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi has made 12 changes to the team that drew 28-28 with Australia for Friday night’s Nations Championship game against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium (8.10pm).

The only survivors from the draw with the Wallabies at the Stadio Malvinas Argentinas in the first week in September are loosehead prop Boris Wenger, secondrow Guido Petti, who played at openside flanker that day, and number eight Pablo Matera, who was at blindside against the Aussies.

For a variety of reasons including injury, club commitments and player welfare, Los Pumas are a much stronger proposition based on the selection to take on Andy Farrell’s team, which will be announced at 2pm this afternoon.

When asked of his hopes for the upcoming block of games, Contepomi said: “Get better. We need to get better as a team, we need to start making less unforced errors, try to get better at the set-piece. Making sure we are competitive.

“We are playing two of the top four teams and another very much improving team in the last few years, Italy, so I think it’s a massive, massive challenge for us, especially one year to the World Cup.

“So, yeah, I think we need to get better consistency, do what we say we are going to do and try to impose the way we want to play rugby.”

ARGENTINA: Juan Cruz Mallia; Bautista Delguy, Justo Piccardo, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo Garcia; Boris Wenger, Julian Montoya (capt), Francisco Morena; Guido Petti, Pedro Rubiolo; Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera.

Replacements: Leonel Oviedo, Mayco Vivas, Joel Sclavi, Efrain Elias, Juan Martin Scelzo, Simon Benitez Cruz, Geronimo Prisciantelli, Lucio Cinti.