Los Pumas Squad for November announced

Los Pumas headcoach, Santiago Phelan has sprung some surprizes in naming a squad of 39 players for Argentina´s three match tour of Europe next month. The first surprize is the size of the squad. It is much larger than traditional squads for November tours with the UAR´s new found revenue stream from the Rugby Championship clearly being invested in player development. The reason for the size of the squad is that Phelan will be naming a list of 27 players for each match and narrowing it down on match day. In previous tours Phelan and coaches before him had tended to take a 30 man squad of less. Phelan´s squad that toured Italy, France and Ireland in November 2010 had 31 players which became 30 following the injury forced withdrawal of Juan Martín Hernández.

The second notable surprize is the non-selection of Felipe Contepomi. The 35 year old veteran of four Rugby World Cup´s has not been selected which therefore unofficially ends his international career. He will nonetheless be playing but for Stade Français. With former Stade Français prop Rodrigo Roncero now retired from all rugby it means the squad no longer featured any starting players from Tier One matches from Rugby World Cup 1999 or 2003. Contepomi has not been selected due to the squad having sufficient depth in the positions of flyhalf and inside centre. Also notable is the non-selection of Santiago Fernández to face Wales in the tours first match. The Montpellier back is in the squad but will not feature at all against the Welsh. Nor will Lucas González Amorosino, Martín Bustos Moyano or Juan Pablo Orlandi. All three played a lot in The Rugby Championship.

With Martín Rodríguez Gurruchaga injured the non-selection of González Amorosino and Bustos Moyano for Wales is very interesting. It means Argentina will have a new fullback. There are multiple contenders based on the 27 players named. The two specialists are Joaquin Tuculet who played against Italy in the position in June before moving to outside centre to face France in the second of Argentina´s three home tests that month. Tuculet moved from the Sale Sharks to Grenoble in the off season and has been recieving plenty of game time in France for the overperforming former Pro d2 club. The other specialist is 18 year Santiago Cordero. His selection completes a phenomenal past few months which has seen him make the Semi Finals for the IRB Junior World Championship, setting up an impressive try against France and going on to play for Argentina in the IRB World Sevens Series in Australia. Either Tuculet or Cordero will start at fullback or Phelan will make a positional change with one of Horacio Agulla, Marcelo Bosch, Juan Martín Hernández or Juan Imhoff playing in the position.

The third surprize is not such a big one - the return of Gonzalo Tiesi. As reported in September here on Rugby World Cup Argentina 2023 Tiesi was likely to be seriously considered for a return to international duty in November. His inclusion may well see a noticable change as he is the only specialist outside centre named in the 27 man squad to face Wales. The other centre is Marcelo Bosch who is a flyhalf that Phelan and Biarritz has used at 13 due to the needs of the team. Now though a potential combination of Bosch and Tiesi together in the centres would appear a strong bet at the Millenium Stadium. Should it not occur it would be due to a 10-12 combination of Juan Martín Hernández and Nicolás Sánchez. The two being the flyhalves named in the 27 man squad.

There are no real surprizes on the wings with Horacio Agulla, Gonzalo Camacho and Juan Imhoff being joined by the young and promising Manuel Montero. They are the same four from The Rugby Championship in which Phelan started Agulla and Camacho for all six games with Imhoff on the bench. Montero played agaisnt Italy and France in June. There are also no changes at scrumhalf with the same four from The Rugby Championship being retained. Tomás Cubelli could well recieve game time after missing out altogether in The Rugby Championship. The new brand of rugby that Phelan is looking for is more suited to Cubelli than to Nicolás Vergallo who lost his starting spot to Martín Landajo midway through the tournament.

The surprizes are not limited to the forwards. As reported yesterday in the Amlin Challenge Cup wrap Stade Français´s Juan Cruz Guillemaín is a future Puma. Like Cordero he was playing for Los Pumitas earlier this year and is now looking like being a genuine candidate to start for Argentina at Rugby World Cup 2015. he will not, however feature against Wales. Instead Phelan has only named Patricio Albacete and Manuel Carizza in the squad for that particular match. They will continue their secondrow combination with Julio Farías Cabello providing cover either from the backrow or off the bench. Phelan has named two others - Esteban Lozada and Tomás Vallejos Cinalli. There is still no place for World Cup Puma Mariano Galarza who underwent surgery and has missed the entire international season.

The non-selection of Guillemaín, Lozada or Vallejos Cinalli means that Phelan will continue to field two backrowers on the bench like he did for five of the six matches in The Rugby Championship. H has named six backrowers to face Wales with four of them being from Los Pampas XV. The veteran pair of Juan Manuel Leguizamón and Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe are certain to start with Julio Farías Cabello in theory being likely to start at 6. This scenario is far from conclusive however due to the performance of Tomás De La Vega for Argentina against France in Córdoba in June. He could very well be selected to start which would enable the slower Farías Cabello to be a genuine replacement in the secondrow. The two other backrowers as Tomás Leonardí and Leonardo Senatore. Leonardí had a fine performance for his country from the bench in The Rugby Championship. He is certain to be in thwe match day squad, likely as a replacement. The squad also features Racing Métro´s Alvaro Galindo who will not face Wales.

The retirement of Rodrigo Roncero has seen Phelan name two props who were not a part of The Rugby Championship. Biarritz´s Francisco Goméz Kodela has returned after featuring for Argentina in June while there is a debut place for Montpellier´s recent medical joker signing, Nahuel Lobo. Goméz Kodela joins Juan Figallo and Marcos Ayerza in the squad tof ace Wales while Lobo will not feature. Completing the props are tighthead props Maximilano Bustos and Juan Pablo Orlandi. There are three hookers in the squad - the same three from The Rugby Championship. Agustín Creevy ended up being the replacement to Eusebio Guiñazú after he fractured a rib against Stade Français in a warm up match for The Rugby Championship. His chance at jumping out of the shadow of Mario Ledesma would appear to be here as he should start against Wales with Guiñazú proving cover from the bench.

Curiously, Phelan has named a maximum of two Pumas per French club in his squad to face Wales. The match will be played on the same weekend as a round of the Top 14. As such there are likely to be a host of changes for Argentina´s match against France in Lille.