Argentina U20 name strong side for historic clash with Junior Wallabies

Coach Alvaro Galindo had to make some “difficult” selection decisions when picking the Argentina Pumitas team to take on tournament hosts Australia in a historic U20 clash on Thursday evening.

Sunshine Coast Stadium in the Australian state of Queensland will host the first-ever Rugby Championship from May 2 to 12. The best young rugby talent from Australia, New Zealand South Africa and Argentina will take the field.

Argentina Rugby recently named an exciting 31-man squad to travel Down Under for the event, with Los Pumitas looking to make history against the best U20s rugby players that the southern hemisphere has to offer.

Coach Galindo, along with assistants Galo Alvarez Quinones and Carlos Mohapp, has led the team through a productive few days in Australia ahead of their opening match at 7pm local time on Thursday.

“We took two days to adapt to the time change, sleep, travel and dehydration,” coach Galindo said in a statement. “Now we are very good.

“On Monday and Tuesday, we had two days of training in which we sought to find the team, il things and continue focusing on some details, both individual and collective.

“Tomorrow we will have a calmer pre-match training session so we an have all the energy put into Thursday for the debut.”

Diego Correa, Juan Manuel Vivas and Tomas Rapetti will pack down in the front-row, while locks Alvaro Garcia Iandolino and Elias Efrain complete the tight five combination.

Juan Penoucos, Santos Fernandez De Oliveria and Juan Pedro Bernasconi form a formidable loose forward trio who will have their work cut out for them against a tough Australian backrow.

Tomas Di Biase and Santino Di Lucca will steer the ship as the two halves, while Tomas Bocco and Palermo Bajo’s Faustino Sanchez Valarolo are the two midfielders for Argentina.

Valentin Soler Filoty, Franco Rossetto and Benjamin Elizalde are the outside backs and the final players to have been selected for the run-on side.

“The truth is that the choice of the 23 players was difficult, but it was done thinking about an 80-minute game, not one focused only on the 15 that start,” Galindo added.

“We will try to be able to maintain good intensity, achievement and balance throughout the match. It is important to have the 15 who start and the eight who enter later.”

Argentina Pumitas to take on Australia U20

1. Diego Correa
2. Juan Manuel Vivas
3. Tomas Rapetti
4. Alvaro Garcia Iandolino
5. Elias Efrain (c)
6. Juan Penoucos
7. Santos Fernandez De Oliveira
8. Juan Pedro Bernasconi
9. Tomas Di Biase
10. Santino Di Lucca
11. Valentin Soler Filoty
12. Tomas Bocco
13. Faustino Sanchez Valarolo
14. Franco Rossetto
15. Benjamin Elizalde

Replacements

16. Marcos Camerlinckx
17. Gonzalo Gargallo Bazan
18. Gael Galvan
19. Luciano Asevedo
20. Julian Rossi
21. Genaro Podesta
22. Mateo Rossati
23. Timothy Silva