Rugby Championship Warm-Up Games

Hey guys,

The warm up games are almost due so I wanted to give you a heads up. Argentina will be playing the NSW Barbarians tomorrow at 18:40 (GMT -3). Los Pumas will be virtually at full strength, except for 2 players who got injured and are getting the best treatment possible to make it to the RC.

Julio Farias Cabello (an utility forward) got injured today so somebody else will be covering for him.... ME! YAY! :D

Pablo Matera (another U20 player) will be taking the pitch as opensider. Watch out for that guy.

I'm still waiting to wake up thinking this was a dream, but nope. So, if you have some free time, find an online stream for the game, so you can roast my performance after the game. Hehe!

Lineups:

Los Pumas: 1- Marcos Ayerza; 2- Eusebio Guiñazú; 3- Juan Figallo; 4- Manuel Carizza; 5- Mariano Galarza, 6- Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe (c), 7- Pablo Matera, 8- Leonardo Senatore, 9- Martín Landajo, 10- Juan Martín Hernández, 11- Horacio Agulla, 12- Santiago Fernández, 13- Gonzalo Tiesi, 14- Gonzalo Camacho, 15- Martín R. Gurruchaga.

Replacements: 16-Agustín Creevy, 17-Bruno Postiglioni, 18-Matías Díaz, 19-Juan Leguizamón, 20-Benjamín Macome, 21-Tomás Lavanini, 22-Tomás Cubelli, 23-Felipe Contepomi, 24-Marcelo Bosch, 25-Nicolás Sánchez, 26-Juan Imhoff, 27-Joaquín Tuculet, 28-Lucas González Amorosino.

Coach: Santiago Phelan

NSW BARBARIANS: 1- Sekope Kepu, 2- Tolu Latu, 3- Paddy Ryan, 4- Will Skelton, 5- Mitchell Chapman, 6- Jed Holloway, 7- Pat McCutcheon, 8- Dave Dennis (c), 9- Brendan McKibbin, 10- Bernard Foley, 11- Peter Betham, 12- Rob Horne, 13- Usaia O´Sullivan, 14- Cam Crawford, 15- Drew Mitchell.

Replacements: 16-Luke Holmes, 17-David Lolojea, 18-Jeremy Tilse, 19-Sam Talakai, 20-Keliti Vangalo, 21-Jack Dempsey, 22-Tala Gray, 23-Matt Lucas, 24-Ben Volavola, 25-David Horwitz, 26-Michael McDougall, 27-Alofa Alofa, 28-Alex Gibbon.

Coach: Michael Cheika

 Congratulations on your selection. I can't even begin to imagine how that must feel to be selected to represent your country. You must be rapt.  Good luck and I will definitely be streaming the game.  

Well this raises the bar.....very best of luck.

Awesome stuff - good luck with Skelton, don't let him get his paws on you :)

Thanks guys!

This is why I kind of vanished from the forums. I was meant to spent 4 months in the Chiefs camp to establish whether the Staff would sign me for the next season. Fortunately, they decided I was decent enough, so I signed the contract and was asked to return to Argentina so I could get some gametime for my local club in Buenos Aires.

Upon my return, I was asked to join the Jaguars ("Argentina A", so to speak) to be Los Pumas' opposition during their training sessions. We even played a full game, losing 83-7. After that, a couple injuries to main secondrowers (Albacete and Farías Cabello), opened the door for me to join the main training squad. If I perform accordingly, I will have a chance to be in the squad that will partake in the RC. But that's long term. I am focusing on every minute of every game I play. Step by step. Perseverance, discipline, respect and passion. Time will tell!

Oimatey -- Hehe, I know. Looking forward to that battle! Really big bloke!

congrats and good luck tomas, :o)

Well, we won 29-27. Tough game, typical pre-season encounter. The guys had heavy legs from all the training in Pensacola, and they had not played a serious game since June. There was a myriad of handling errors, and the gameplan was not executed properly. But that is bound to change as the team gel up.

The Barbarians played well, kept the ball alive and trusted their system. Drew Mitchell in particular showed his class and vision.

I played 16 minutes, did not get as much ball as I'd have wanted, but all in all, it was a "good" performance. Unfortunately for me "good" will never cut it, so there's plenty of work to do. Hopefully I'll get more gametime next week.

A report can be found HERE.

 Sounds  like a good warm up game against some classy players. Keep us in the loop, it's fun having a real player on the Board.

All the best of luck and will definately be looking out for you.

Bye the way, the Boks are going to play DUMB ASS rugby in kick and chase so close down no 9 and 10 and you fanstaic Argies should win both games against us..............hopefully.

Really hope this happens so we can sack our coach. He is not interested in giving our younger talent an opportunity.

 All the very best Thomas and hope you get your first test cap soon. Best it be against softer packs of Oz or the wee abs as the Bok pack is likely to be a handful (especially when the likes of Du Toit and Malherbe are back in the mix) and will be looking to set the record right against you guys.

Just know you have been adopted by us all and we are right behind you.

As for that turncoat rugga nut wishing for a Bok loss. Words fail me. 

Not interested in giving young talent a chance! What are you smoking rugganut