Argentina's 2024 Rugby Championship campaign will get underway with a trip to the Wellington Regional Stadium to face the defending champions New Zealand on Saturday.
The last time these Southern Hemisphere foes crossed paths was at the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup in France, which the All Blacks won in commanding fashion 44-6.
Match preview
© Imago
New Zealand are setting off on their quest to claim a fifth straight Rugby Championship title and potentially the first under Scott Robertson, who replaced Ian Foster ahead of the summer Tests.
Foster oversaw a remarkable turnaround of form after a very poor 2022 season, which included five losses in six matches, by leading the side to their third and fourth Southern Hemisphere titles before calling it quits after the loss to South Africa in Paris.
Robertson, meanwhile, steered the Crusaders to seven Super Rugby titles, and has made a solid start to his international coaching tenure, securing a 2-0 series victory over England before making light work of Fiji in San Diego last month.
The new boss will now face his first Test at Wellington, where the All Blacks have a dismal record in recent years, winless in their last four Tests. They lost and drew to the Springboks in 2018 and 2019 respectively, followed by consecutive losses to Australia and Ireland in 2019 and 2020.
However, on paper, the All Blacks should have too much firepower for their upcoming opponents, and they will see the two matches against Los Pumas as must-wins before heading to South Africa for back-to-back Tests against the world champions.
© Imago
Meanwhile, Argentina also underwent a change of leadership this summer with Felipe Contepomi being brought in to replace Michael Cheika, who has now taken on the head coaching role at Leicester Tigers.
However, the Argentine's debut at the helm was something of a disaster as his side slumped to a 28-13 defeat to a second-string France, though they did bounce back with a win over Les Bleus a week later before hammering Uruguay in their final July Test.
Los Pumas stunned the All Blacks 25-18 in Christchurch in 2022 to claim their first victory on New Zealand soil but the team, like many others, are going through a transitionary period which has led to erratic performances.
Thus, Los Pumas are going to find it difficult to pull off a repeat of that famous 2022 result against an All Blacks side that are likely to be in full flight, having already had three proper workouts ahead of their Rugby Championship title defence.
New Zealand form (all competitions):
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
Argentina form (all competitions):
- W
- L
- L
- L
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
The most notable change made by Scott Robertson for this opening match of the tournament is the exclusion of Rieko Ioane. Sam Darry will start at lock, while TJ Perenara will resume duty at scrum-half after recovering from injury.
Dalton Papali'i gets the nod in the starting lineup at openside flanker which sees Ethan Blackadder move to the blindside, and Anton Lienert-Brown starts at centre.
Pablo Matera, who recently joined the centurion list for Los Pumas, will captain the side for this match and he will be joined by flank Marcos Kremer and number eight Juan Martin Gonzalez as the loose trio.
Pedro Rubiolo and Franco Molina will form the lock partnership, while Eduardo Bello, hooker Ignacio Ruiz and Thomas Gallo will make up the front row. Juan Cruz Mallia returns at full-back for the first time since the World Cup.
New Zealand starting lineup: 15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Tele'a, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Dalton Papali'i, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Tupou Vaa'i, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan De Groot
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Rieko Ioane, 23 Will Jordan
Argentina starting lineup: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Franco Molina, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Ignacio Ruiz, 1 Thomas Gallo
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Efrain Elias, 20 Tomas Lavanini, 21 Joaquin Oviedo, 22 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 23 Tomas Albornoz
We say: New Zealand 42-12 Argentina
While Argentina are capable of the extraordinary every so often, they have not been at their best of late and we feel that they will be no match for the All Blacks in this one.
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