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Coogee Oval set to host Randwick vs Argentina Rugby World Cup warm-up match

24th July, 2019
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24th July, 2019
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Fans of Sydney club side Randwick will be in for a treat in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup, with the Coogee Oval to host Argentina in a pre-tournament warm-up match.

While the date is yet to be confirmed for the Pumas clash, it is slated to be played around about fortnight before Argentina’s World Cup opener, which is on September 21 against France in Tokyo.

Mario Ledesma’s side will be in Sydney for a training camp before heading to Japan, the head coach telling rugby.com.au the extended stopover will break up the long flight from South America.

“I like the place and we wanted a hard game but not that hard so we’re playing Randwick, that’s we’re talking about that,” he said.

“That’ll be two weeks away from the first game.

“We’re trying an opposed training after that, in the week in Japan before the World Cup, might try get something over there but we’re far away from everybody, so maybe we’re training against each other, just going a little bit harder.

“It cuts the trip in half, it’s a very long trip from Argentina, it’s almost 38 hours or something.

“So we’d prefer to come over here, then stay a couple of days over here and then get rid of the jetlag and then you just go up north.”

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Ledesma previously lived in eastern Sydney during his tenure with the Wallabies and Waratahs, but said he had considered alternatives, such as taking his team to Perth for a match against the Force, before settling on the Randwick game.

“We were looking for a game to play before the World Cup and…we were trying to play against Perth but obviously we had to go to Perth and it was quite tricky to go over there and then there was another option coming through Europe but you still have jet lag coming through Europe,” he said.

“I thought it was ideal and I feel good coming over here and the boys do too, so they like it.”

This match won’t be the first time Randwick have welcomed an international side to Coogee Oval. The All Blacks famously played them at the ground in 1988, racking up a 25-9 victory against a Randwick side which included current Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.

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