Mario Ledesma has made only two changes to the Argentine team to play against Scotland at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield on Saturday, as his team needs to find the way to a win.
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Having taken over the team’s reins in August, he had a solid start to the Rugby Championship, with a home win against South Africa and an away win to Australia. In the return game against the Wallabies, leading 31-7, the team imploded and has not yet recovered, losing on the road to Ireland and France.
Scotland, a team that has always complicated the Argentine game style, has won seven of the last ten encounters, beating Argentina 44-15 earlier this year when on tour in Resistencia.
Argentina did stop the Scots in RWC 2007 and 2011, denying them a place in the semi-finals and in the quarterfinals in each tournament. Ledesma played in both those games. He also played in four wins in Murrayfield between 1999 and 2006, so knows the winning feeling of playing in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
Not winning will mean this season equals 2017 and 2013 as the worst in Argentine history with ten losses, something coach and players want to avoid.
To do this, there have been two changes to the starting fifteen that last week lost in Lille against France. Flanker Rodrigo Bruni will start his first test whilst Matías Moroni returns to the team, taking Matías Orlando’s place, who drops to the bench. With Bruni coming into the side, lock Guido Petti returns to his natural position after two tests at flank, with Matías Alemanno taking his place in the bench.
While Argentina has one final game against the Barbarians in Twickenham next Saturday, it is the last game with ranking points on stake for this year. A big win could help them rise from their ninth place, even climbing to seventh if France loses to Fiji.
That is far from the teams’ mindset at the moment, with a problematic scrum and the need to find their winning heads now.
A Scottish side with eight changes to the team that narrowly lost to South Africa, hungrily awaits.
- Frankie Deges