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Michael Cheika changes two for Argentina's knockout clash with Wales
By Grant Constable
Argentina head coach Michael Cheika has named his 23-man match-day squad to face Wales in the Rugby World Cup 2023 quarter-final at Stade de Marseille on Saturday, 14 October.
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Scrum-half Tomás Cubelli has replaced Gonzalo Bertranou and Facundo Isa has come in to Los Pumas’ back-row for the injured Pablo Matera as Argentina head coach Michael Cheika makes two changes to his starting XV for the quarter-final against Wales on Saturday in Marseille.
Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez are the only two Los Pumas players to have started every match at RWC 2023, while Tomás Cubelli has played just 110 minutes of test rugby in 2023, with starts against Spain and Chile, and a cap off the bench against Samoa.
Facundo Isa earns his third start of the year, and first in a Rugby World Cup knock-out match after playing the quarter, semi and bronze-final in 2015 off the bench.
There are nine survivors from the last Rugby World Cup quarter-final Los Pumas played in 2015 against Ireland – Matías Alemanno, Agustín Creevy, Tomás Cubelli, Facundo Isa, Tomas Lavanini, Julián Montoya, Matías Moroni, Guido Petti and Nicolás Sanchez.
Sanchez has not missed a kick at goal at RWC 2023, converting all 10 attempts.
Agustín Creevy did not miss a tackle against Wales in 2022, completing a team-high 14 attempts in Cardiff. At 38 years and 213 days old, he is the third oldest player to take the field at this tournament after Namibian PJ van Lill (39 years and 297 days against Uruguay) and Romanian Florin Surugiu (38 years and 302 days against Tonga), and the fifth oldest in Rugby World Cup history.
ARGENTINA TEAM TO FACE WALES IN MARSEILLE
1 Thomas Gallo
2 Julian Montoya (c)
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal
5 Tomas Lavanini
6 Juan Martin Gonzalez
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Facundo Isa
9 Tomas Cubelli
10 Santiago Carreras
11 Mateo Carreras
12 Santiago Chocobares
13 Lucio Cinti
14 Emiliano Boffelli
15 Juan Cruz Mallia
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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
Meanwhile, coach Cheika has replaced injured back-row Pablo Matera with Lucas Paulos in their 33-man Rugby World Cup squad.
Matera, who started three matches, tore his hamstring in Argentina’s final Pool D game against Japan and has subsequently been ruled out of the tournament.
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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