Rassie Erasmus expects Argentina to field a more experienced team than the Springboks in Buenos Aires next Saturday despite missing several first-choice players.
The one-off Test will be the world champions’ final hit-out before the four-match Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks.
Erasmus is expected to take a 26-man squad to Argentina, while up to 18 players remain in Johannesburg to continue preparing for the first Test against New Zealand at Ellis Park on 22 August.
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Los Pumas go into the match after a mixed home Nations Championship campaign, beating Wales but suffering defeats to Scotland and England.
Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi has named 10 uncapped players in his 34-man squad for matches against the Springboks and Wallabies, with experienced campaigners Joaquin Oviedo, Julian Montoya, Gonzalo Garcia, Justo Piccardo and Bautista Delguy unavailable because of European club commitments.
The Boks won both meetings between the sides last season – 67-30 in Durban and 29-27 at Twickenham – but Erasmus has not forgotten the 32-19 defeat in Mendoza in 2018 or the 29-28 loss in Santiago del Estero two years ago.
“We’ve learned our lessons many times against Argentina,” Erasmus said on Tuesday. “If you take your foot off the pedal, you can get a hiding there and we certainly want to try and prevent that.”
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While Argentina have included a host of newcomers, Erasmus expects Contepomi to rely on a seasoned core of players.
“They’ve picked a squad with 10 rookies but if you look at their first-choice team, compared to the team that we will take over there, they will definitely have more caps than our players,” he said.
“Although they’ve picked a very inexperienced group, there’s a core group of 15 guys who are really experienced that they can fall back onto, which will form their spine.
“It’s going to be 15 guys who are really experienced, and then a bunch of youngsters who have energy and will come from the sevens circuit.
“There are a lot of guys who play on the sevens circuit, and they are always really dangerous, so we’ll have to look out for that.”
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Erasmus also highlighted the unique challenges Argentina face, with all of their leading players based overseas.
“Argentina’s big thing is their players play all over the world and they don’t play in a club competition together,” he said.
“And while we are also picking from all over the world, there’s a core group of players in South Africa that we always can get into alignment camps and Argentina normally don’t have that.
“But their last Test match against England could have gone either way, and you could see they’re building momentum.”
Photo: Getty Images
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Rassie Erasmus expects Argentina to field a more experienced team than the Springboks in Buenos Aires next Saturday despite missing several first-choice players.
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