Argentina have made just one change to their starting line-up for Friday’s semi-final against New Zealand, who have only made two of their own in the all-Southern Hemisphere clash at the Stade de France.
A week on from the fever dream that was last weekend’s quarter-final weekend Saturday’s victors, written off to a certain degree beforehand, believe they have found their winning formulas with both squads largely unchanged.
For the All Blacks, however, try scorer from against Ireland Leiecester Fainga’anuku drops out of the 23, replaced by Mark Telea. Telea missed out last week due to an undisclosed disciplinary breach, but head coach Ian Foster is trusting that these problems are behind him.
The other change to the starting line-up sees 151-cap lock Samuel Whitelock replace 107-cap Brodie Retallick.
The pair combined for the crowning moment of last week’s monumental victory, when Retallick’s crunching chop on Ronan Kelleher presented Whitelock with the chance to make the game winning turnover.
But whilst the World Cup-winning combination of Retallick and Whitelock is almost as iconic as the All Blacks and the Webb Ellis trophy itself, Scott Barrett will partner Whitelock on Friday night.
The third and final change sees 36-year-old Dane Coles, who spoke this week of Argentina’s “fear-factor”, being replaced on the bench by the prolific Samisoni Taukei’aho.
Friday’s hooker combination of Taukei’aho and Codie Taylor played in Argentina’s historic 25-18 win against the Kiwis in Christchurch last autumn as well as 14 others in New Zealand’s squad, and though the All Blacks followed that loss with 53-3 and 41-12 thumping of Argentina, Los Pumas’ two recent wins against their opposition will be at the forefront of most minds in Paris this Friday.
Fifteen of Argentina’s squad for Friday night were among the history makers last year and will hope to emulate their shock result, with expectations for an Argentina victory extremely low.
However, they are used to the underdogs tag having been discounted last week against Wales before accurate goal kicking from Emiliano Boffelli and a try-scoring impact from their bench, including a memorable intercept from veteran fly half Nicholas Sanchez, saw Los Pumas sail past Wales with the biggest winning margin of the weekend.
Their sole change from their well-celebrated victory is at scrum half as Tomás Cubelli drops out for Gonzalo Bertranou.
Whilst Cubelli played in Argentina’s momentous win against the All Blacks last year, his inclusion last week was a surprise and Argentina fans might consider Bertranou’s inclusion a return to normality.
Elsewhere, Santiago Chocobares retains his starting spot having passed his HIA; the inside centre was removed after just 25 minutes play last week.
His replacement on that day, Newcastle Falcons‘ Matias Moroni, certainly made an impact with a spectacular try saver on Welsh flyer Louis Rees-Zammit just moments before Sanchez’s game winning interception, but the combination of Chocobares and Lucio Cinti Luna in the centres has been a point of excellence for Los Pumas since their opening week disaster against England.
Head coach Michael Cheika has since said this week that Argentina’s opener against England can perhaps be excused by a lack of freshness that they have since found with eight tries in their last two games against Wales and Japan. Argentina are heading into their third semi final in five World Cups, and their last was a 29-15 loss to a Cheika-managed Australia side.
Seven Pumas remain from that loss, whilst there are 12 survivors from New Zealand’s loss to England in the 2019 semi finals.
The All Blacks squad have been vocal about the scars of their last semi final, and about their loss to Argentina last year, and could be jaded from a match worthy of any final last week.
Converse to this, Argentina, having already been written off, have considerably less pressure on their energised shoulders. Will their polarised mindsets produce a back and forth encounter, or will New Zealand meet expectations to secure a spot in the final?
Written by Tom Jeffreys
ARGENTINA: Mallia; Boffelli, Cinti, Chocobares, M Carreras; S Carreras, Bertranou; Gallo, Montoya (c), Gomez Kodela, Petti, Lavanini, Gonzalez, Kremer, Isa
Replacements: Creevy, Sclavi, Bello, Alemanno, Bruni, Bazan Velez, Sanchez, Moroni
NEW ZEALAND: B Barrett; Jordan, Ioane, J Barrett, Telea; Mo’unga, Smith; De Groot, Taylor, Lomax, Whitelock, S Barrett, Frizell, Cane (c), Savea
Replacements: Taukei’aho, Williams, Newell, Retallick, Papalii, Christie, McKenzie, Lienert-Brown
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