Los Pumas make six key changes after demoralising defeat

Nice game last night. Well done all blacks. The game last night was very slow. All blacks need to run the game faster. and stick to their games plan, and look after the ball all the time. Spring Bok is a really good team.You've to train harder for that game. I'll always supported the all blacks team.Love you all boys,the coach and the stuff. God bless you all and stay safe.????????????????????????

I know "this is not footbal", but I want to make this comparisson. You look at the Argentine national team coaches since the 70s, and only Bielsa was given a second shot at the RWC after different perceived degrees of failure---and he still did not make it to 2006. In retrospect, we might have been better with Pékerman in 2010 than with Maradona, but hey... failure is failure. Back to the Pumas, confirming Ledesma after 2019, when there were already a lot of red flags and decisions that didn't pass the smell test, looks more like deciding to renew Maradona for a 2014 gig, than renewing Bielsa after 2002.

“I don’t know but feel that this is a golden generation whose assets might be lost.” Indeed. The future looked bright the last match of the 2015 WRC. Semi-finalists, SR to come, young world-class talent to develop who’d go into 2019 and 2023 in their rugby primes. The road was harder perhaps that we all fans expected to be. Still, the Jaguars seemed to have peaked at the right time, and then we sort of blew it in 2019–even if Boffelli’s long range attempt against France going in might have changed the story completely. It was the moment to ask the hard questions, but instead the UAR decided to go ahead with Ledesma and gave him another run at the RWC. And here we are experimenting against the ABs.

Thanks Francisco!

Cheika....

Somehow in the back of my mind, there is an impression that Cheika is quite good at languages. “He Speaks Four Languages Most Rugby forwards struggle to speak English, but Cheika is also fluent in Arabic, French and Italian, while he dabbles in a bit of Spanish.” From Ladbrokes. com.au

Is Ledesma being foolish, or smart? Make your pick! IMO this could be a major mistake. If so, ML and Cheika should go, and Quesada should be hired without waiting for the end of the RC. If this extremely unexperienced team gets anywhere near the ABs try line, it will be sheer luck, or some uncharacteristic mistake by ABs, like loosing a show before running after an Argentine player..... , and even so, that might not be enough.

PS - it would be an interesting bit of trivia to know whether Cheika, after now being assistant coach of Pumas for 2 years, has so far learnt even 2 words of Spanish hehehe. I'd be surprised if he can say anything more than "Hola" :laughing:

Buena suerte los Pumas It's always a tough gig playing the ABs :thumbup:

Argentina !!!!

Yes, we will experiment what it feels to have a wing as 10, a center that plays sevens. Maybe we should get a prop to play fullback, a hooker to be lock, a scrum half to become hooker.... This is just amazing!

IMO Miotti should get more playing time to give him a chance to develop. Carreras as an experiment as flyhalf againts th ABs? You do not make this kind of things because you undermine the head of the players. The two centers are too young. This is a formation to experiment a few times to lesser teams but not in RCH.

Hello...! In an article I published a few weeks ago I analyzed the topic of "cohesion" in ARG, from # RWC2019 to # TRCH2021. It is interesting to see the correlation between the lower degree of cohesion and the lack of points or tries. The link to the article is: https://www.theroar.com.au/2021/08/04/why-los-pumas-cohesion-is-their-greatest-asset/ :rugby:

Of course it was great the beat the ABs but their attack against Boks and Wales was disappointing after the years before. If they could just add that attack in 2015 with the defensive physicality of now they would really be something.

Other than Covid and travel I'm wondering what ails the Pumas. On paper there seem to be even more players to choose from but they haven't reached the scales of previous years. I think the forwards have been great to some extent but the attack play has dropped off. Is this from the fact that the Jaguares are no longer there. Maybe a new coach needed - the one before Ledesma was great. Maybe he should have stayed with Ledesma coming in as forwards coach. I don't know but feel that this is a golden generation whose assets might be lost.

It's disappointing they haven't been able to build on last year's performances.

Time to experiment n play. The Pumas have nothing to lose, so why not. The ABs side has 11 changes, so this game will be like chalk n cheese compared to the curtain raiser. Let’s hope for a free flowing game , with end to end stuff n no red cards.

Hello Highlander, I agree about changes required in the backline. I was thinking that 4 changes could be made, but 6 have been. It will be interesting to see how they gel :thumbup:

Changes had to be made in the backs after last week, made 23 tackles , missed 11 Can’t do that against the ABs – even this team

Some baffling changes. Really interested to see what our Argentine Roarers make of this. Could Los Pumas be blooding and resting some players in a game they expect to lose in order to put their best foot forward against the Wallabies? Perhaps I'm too cynical, but they're really throwing a good young player like Carreras in at the deep end!