The Pumas will go this Saturday for their fourth win against South Africa, current world champions, in the opening match of the tenth edition of the Rugby Championship, a tournament that will take place until October 2. The competition, organized by Sanzar, an entity that brings together the powers of the Southern Hemisphere, will also include those selected from New Zealand and Australia
The meeting between the South African Springboks and Los Pumas will take place from 12.05 at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Porth Elizabeth and will be controlled by Irish referee Andrew Brace, who will be assisted by Englishman Karl Dickson and South African AJ Jacobs.
Coach Mario Ledesma confirmed the team on Thursday, which will have two modifications compared to the one that played on the European tour last month; Opening midfielder Felipe Ezcurra will enter for the injured Tomás Cubelli and second row Marcos Kremer will return.
Among the substitutes will be Facundo Bosch, Carlos Muzzio (debutant), Santiago Medrano, Tomás Lavanini, MatÃas Alemanno, Gonzalo Bertranou, Domingo Miotti and Sebastián Cancelliere
The Pumas reach their best moment to participate in the Rugby Championship, after the successful tour of Europe last month, in which they defeated Romania (24-17) and then added a draw (20-20) and a victory (33 -11) against Wales (33-11), last champion of the Six Nations tournament.
The Argentine fifteen, beyond the last positive results, must maintain in the competition the growth in contact with the ball, the improvement of their forwards in the fixed formations and not fall into indiscipline, one of the most important points against international powers. Meanwhile, Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber confirmed the starting team with ten changes compared to the one that defeated the Britsh & Irish Lions (19-16) last Saturday.
The Argentine team has six wins after the 2019 World Cup in Japan and only lost to New Zealand (38-0) in the Three Nations tournament, played last year. Precisely, in the aforementioned contest, Los Pumas achieved a historic triumph by beating the All Blacks of New Zealand for the first time (25-15) and shared second place with Australia by equalizing in the two opportunities they faced (16- 16) and (15-15).
On the second date, the Argentine team will meet again against the Springboks, a meeting that will take place at the same venue on Saturday and with the same start time. Then, the Pumas will face the All Blacks of New Zealand on September 11 and a week later they will dispute the rematch, in Dunedin and Auckland, respectively. Finally, the Argentine representative will face the two games against Australia: on September 25 at the Jones Stadium in Newcastle and on October 2 at the GIO Stadium in Canberra.
South Africa and Argentina measured each other in 30 official encounters, in the post-apartheid stage, a system that discriminated against the black South African population. The Springboks achieved 26 wins, Los Pumas three and a tie was recorded. Los Pumas’ first triumph was in 2015, in Durban (37-25), a year later they achieved their second success in Salta (26-24) and the third in 2018 in Mendoza (32-19). The only tie (16-16) was in the first edition of the Rugby Championship match played in 2012 in Mendoza.
New Zealand became champion of the Rugby Championship in the 2012/13/14/16/17/18 editions, while Australia was crowned the winner in 2015 and South Africa in 2019.
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