Rugby: Argentina to play against Scotland in Tucuman and Mar del Plata

May 28, 2010 – 2:18 pm

Scotland have announced that they will tour Argentina in the summer, playing two Test matches against the international side.

They will face Argentina on Saturday 12 June in Tucuman, with the second Test being played in Mar Del Plata the following Saturday.

Argentina are in the same pool as Scotland for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

And the Pumas beat the Scots 9-6 at Murrayfield in November.

However, the Scots won their last match in Argentina in 2008, winning 26-14 in Buenos Aires, to square the series after a 21-15 defeat in the opening Test in Rosario.

Argentina, currently ranked seventh, two places above the Scots, also won their meeting in the 2007 World Cup 19-13 to reach the semi-finals in France.

The trip to South America will be Andy Robinson’s first tour since taking over as national coach from Frank Hadden in the summer.

Argentina able to name full-strength squad for visit of Scotland party

When Scotland head to Argentina next month looking for only their third international victory over their hosts, they now know they are going to have to do it the hard way against a full-strength Puma side.

With the matches not scheduled until the middle of June, the South Americans have been able to call back all their stars from France, meaning they should be able to field a stronger side than the one that won at Murrayfield last November.

From the touring party’s viewpoint, the encouraging aspect of the home squad announced by Santiago Phelan, the Argentina coach, in Buenos Aires yesterday, is that the Scots came away from that Murrayfield game feeling they had won the forward battle and lost only because of the number of chances they squandered. This squad includes every one of the pack that started the November match and the Scotland players will feel confident they can repeat their dominant performance.

That said, the Pumas are expecting to field a stronger unit this time with Mario Ledesma, the veteran hooker, who had been released to be at the birth of his third child, and Juan Manuel Leguizamon, the back row, who missed that tour, both available this time. Both are key members of Phelan’s squad.

The mini-revolution, however, is in the backs where there are seven players who were not involved in the November game, including Felipe Contepomi, who is likely to captain the side.

He missed the first half of the season at Toulon with a knee injury but now that he is playing again he duly slots back into the squad, where he is almost certain to return to his favourite role of fly half.

The only major absentee is now Juan Martin Hernandez, the other potential fly half, who is still recovering from surgery on a back problem, so though Contepomi will face some competition from Ignacio Mieres, the Stade Français playmaker, experience should make the selection close to automatic.

Contepomi had been named as captain for the autumn tour but failed to recover in time from the injury he picked up playing for Leinster in their Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Munster last year. He is now back playing and in the Toulon squad for the Amlin Cup final on Sunday, after which he will head home to join the rest of the squad.

In all, Phelan has named 23 players who ply their trade in France alongside five from English clubs, two who play in Italy and Eusebia Guinazu, who is in the Stormers squad in South Africa.

He also has the option of calling up Argentina-based players having at the same time announced another group of 15 home-based players, including Martin Rodriguez, who kicked all the points to beat Scotland last year. They are expected to be the core of the side that is to play a France XV on the eve of Scotland’s second international.

Argentina squad (to play Scotland): Backs: H Agulla (Brive), L Borges (Albi), R Carballo (Begles), F Contepomi (Toulon), J I Gauthier (Roma), L G Amorosino (Leicester), A Lalanne (London Irish), F M Aramburu (Dax), I Mieres (Stade Français), G Tiesi (Harlequins), N Vergallo (Dax), M Viazzo (Bourgoin). Forwards: A Abadie (Rovigo), P Albacete (Toulouse), M Ayerza (Leicester), A Campos (Montauban), M Carizza (Biarritz), J M Fernandez Lobbe (Toulon), J Figallo (Montpellier), A Galindo (Racing), J Gomez (Leeds), E Guinazu (Boland), P Henn (Brive), M Ledesma (Clermont), J M Leguizamon (Stade Français), E Lozada (Toulon), J P Orlandi (Racing), R Roncero (Stade Francais), M Sambucetti (Bristol), M Scelzo (Clermont), A Vernet Basualdo (Toulouse).

Scotland name squad to face Argentina

Scotland coach Andy Robinson has named a 27-man squad for next month’s tour of Argentina.

Leinster lock Nathan Hines was a notable omission from the squad that will tackle the Pumas in Tucuman on June 12 and again in Mar Del Plata a week later with the 33-year-old granted compassionate leave to spend time in his native Australia helping care for his sick mother-in-law. The door has been left open for Hines to join the tour if he should decide to do so.

“He’s going back to see his wife, who has been over in Australia nursing her sick mother,” head coach Andy Robinson told PA Sport. “It’s time for him to be there and if Nathan feels he can come across to Argentina at a later stage then we will leave that open for him to be able to do.”

Injured trio Chris Paterson, Thom Evans and Rory Lamont will also miss out while another notable absentee was centre Ben Cairns, with Edinburgh team-mate Jim Thompson preferred. Thompson was the one uncapped player in the squad as Robinson stuck with the 22 who won March’s final Six Nations match in Ireland, with five added to that number.

“We are really looking forward to playing against Argentina,” commented Robinson. “We have a lot of respect for the way the game is played there and we want to improve upon our success in our most recent game in the Six Nations.

“As well as our two Test matches in Argentina, we will prepare for those contests with our game at Murrayfield against a Japan Select. In addition, there are matches against Georgia, Namibia and Argentina Jaguars for Scotland A in the IRB Nations Cup. So, from my perspective, we are playing six Test matches this summer and that will be reflected when we announce the Scotland A squad next week.”

Robinson, who revealed he would consider adding a further player to his squad, has selected three scrum-halves for Argentina, Mike Blair and Rory Lawson joining captain Chris Cusiter. “We want to involve all three. Rory has been playing well and both Mike and Chris have been bothered by niggling injuries over the last few weeks,” he explained.

In related news, Glasgow Warriors’ head coach Sean Lineen will lead Scotland A in their defence of the Nations Cup, which was won when Robinson was at the helm in Bucharest last June. From the squad that defeated Uruguay, Russia and their French counterparts last year, Alex Grove, Richie Vernon and Kyle Traynor went on to win Scotland caps in the past year, underlining Robinson’s stance on the importance of the Scotland A team.

Preparations for both the tour and the IRB Nations Cup will include a Scotland XV against a Japan Select at Murrayfield on June 1.

Backs: Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors, captain), Simon Danielli (Ulster), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Max Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Phil Godman (Edinburgh), Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors), Sean Lamont (Scarlets), Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Graeme Morrison, Dan Parks (both Glasgow Warriors), Hugo Southwell (Stade Francais) and Jim Thompson (Edinburgh)

Forwards: John Barclay, Johnnie Beattie, Kelly Brown (all Glasgow Warriors), Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Hamilton, Allan Jacobsen (both Edinburgh), Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Lawson (Gloucester), Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors), Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh), Euan Murray (Northampton Saints) and Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester).

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SOURCES:

“Scotland confirm Argentina tour”
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
BBC Sport
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/scottish/8428707.stm

“Argentina able to name full-strength squad for visit of Scotland party”
From The Times
May 21, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article7132309.ece

“Scotland name squad to face Argentina”
Scrum.com
May 12, 2010
http://www.scrum.com
http://www.scrum.com/scotland/rugby/story/115462.html