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Michael Cheika has made four changes to his Argentina team for this Saturday’s Rugby Championship round two meeting with Australia in San Juan. Los Pumas ran out of steam in last weekend’s tournament opener, losing 41-26 to the Wallabies in Mendoza, and their new head coach has reacted by announcing a quartet of alterations – three of them in his backline.
The Australian must have been satisfied with how his starting pack fared in round one as there is only a single change up front in the team, Thomas Gallo getting promoted from the Argentina replacements to start at loosehead in place of the benched Manuel Tetaz Chaparro.
It’s in the backs, though, where the changes are more pronounced, Cheika making switches at scrum-half, centre and wing.
Tomas Cubelli was last weekend named to start at No9 in place of Lautaro Bazan Velez for the round one Rugby Championship game, but he has now been demoted to the bench with Gonzalo Bertranou named as the starter in a half-back partnership with Santiago Carreras.
Elsewhere, Juan Imhoff is named on the left wing with Emiliano Boffelli, the series-clinching try-scorer versus Scotland, switching to the right wing where Santiago Cordero drops out. Meanwhile, Matias Moroni is promoted from the bench to start in place of Matias Orlando at outside centre.
¡Así forman Los Pumas! ???
Estos son los 23 jugadores designados por Michael Cheika para disputar el encuentro del próximo sábado 13 de agosto ante Australia por la segunda fecha del #VisaMacroRugbyChampionship.
¡Vamos, Los Pumas! ??#VuelvenLosPumas pic.twitter.com/5lqavJeyMn
— Los Pumas (@lospumas) August 11, 2022
Four of the eight-strong replacements are the same as in Mendoza. Chaparro and Cubelli have both dropped down from the starting XV while Facundo Isa and Lucio Sinti are included as cover with Santiago Grondona excluded from the matchday 23 and Moroni upgraded to start.
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