Pumas target Bok whitewash; Rugby 365

Argentina believe they can 'whitewash' South Africa when the Rugby Championship gets underway later this month.

The Pumas, after a trip that included a stop-over in San Pablo, started their preparations for next week's Round One encounter with the Springbok at the High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria.

Having lost the services star wing Juan Imhoff, who suffered a fractured metatarsal of the right foot during the match in a pre-season practice match against  French club Grenoble last Saturday in Catamarca, they called up Rosario centre Jerónimo De la Fuente in place of the Racing Metro flyer.

The formal part of their preparations started with a training session on Friday, while they will play another practice match against the University of Pretoria on Saturday - ahead of the opening match against the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld next Saturday.

It will be the Pumas' third appearance in the Southern Hemisphere championship, with Saracens centre Marcello Bosch admitting they will need to take a big step up against the Bok next Saturday.

His teammates were a lot more positive, with loose forward Juan Manuel Leguizamón saying they are confident of ironing out the mistakes that crept into their game against the French outfit - ahead of the trip to Loftus.

"The team did some good things [against Grenoble] and a couple of flaws that we can't afford to repeat against South Africa," Leguizamón said.

"We have switched out focus to South Africa and must learn from that game [last Saturday].

"In the past two years out opening matches against South Africa did not produce good results," he said of 6-27 (at Newlands in 2012) and 13-73 (in Soweto last year) losses to the Boks.

"We would like to make a much better start to the championship.

"We have to be mentally stronger and much better in the next two week - hopefully we can take away [a full-house] 10 points from the matches," Leguizamón added.

Lock Mariano Galarza spoke about defence as a key factor in their plans to upstage the Boks.

He said their scrums and line-outs are functioning well and while they will always ask some questions on attack, they need to "regain the trust" on defence they showed in the past.

"It will be a tough match, with less possession that we are used to - making our defence very important," Galarza added.

Fullback Joaquín Tuculet said they needed to improve their defence and discipline against the Boks.

"The first Test against South Africa will be difficult, but we have the highest expectations and desire to overcome that obstacle," Tuculet said.