Scrum-half Tomás Cubelli has replaced Gonzalo Bertranou and Facundo Isa has come into Los Pumas’ back-row for the injured Pablo Matera as Argentina head coach Michael Cheika makes two changes to his starting XV for the quarter-final against Wales on Saturday in Marseille.
Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez are the only two Los Pumas players to have started every match at RWC 2023. Tomás Cubelli has played just 110 minutes of test rugby in 2023, with starts against Spain and Chile, and a cap off the bench against Samoa.
This will be only his second start in a Rugby World Cup knock-out match after the bronze-final in 2015. He played both the quarter-final and semi-final off the bench eight years ago.
Facundo Isa earns his third start of the year, and first in a Rugby World Cup knock-out match after playing the quarter-, semi- and bronze-final in 2015 off the bench.
There are nine survivors from the last Rugby World Cup quarter-final Los Pumas played in 2015 against Ireland – Matías Alemanno, Agustín Creevy, Tomás Cubelli, Facundo Isa, Tomas Lavanini, Julián Montoya, Matías Moroni, Guido Petti and Nicolás Sanchez.
Argentina
1 Thomas Gallo
2 Julian Montoya (c)
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal
5 Tomas Lavanini
6 Juan Martin Gonzalez
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Facundo Isa
9 Tomas Cubelli
10 Santiago Carreras
11 Mateo Carreras
12 Santiago Chocobares
13 Lucio Cinti
14 Emiliano Boffelli
15 Juan Cruz Mallia
Replacements:
16 Agustín Creevy
17 Joel Sclavi
18 Eduardo Bello
19 Matias Alemanno
20 Rodrigo Bruni
21 Lautaro Bazan Velez
22 Nicolas Sanchez
23 Matías Moroni
