Argentina bring in fresh faces

Argentina coach Daniel Hourcade has added five new players to his squad for the end-of-year tour to the northern hemisphere.

Matías Moroni, Santiago Cordero, Juan Cruz Guillemain, Santiago Iglesias Valdez and Guido Petti have been drafted into the touring party, after not playing any part in the Rugby Championship. Lock Mariano Galarza and prop Bruno Postiglioni have not been included due to injury.

'This is part of the initial plan of incorporating competent players who have been improving,' said Hourcade.

'Guillemain was part of the system two years ago. We have two casualties. Galarza is nursing an injury while Bruno had an illness and he will require a month to recover, so we prefer to have him 100% healthy and start the next year.

'Two of our opponents are above us in the rankings and have always been competitive at this level. We have to face this with the utmost humility and make the momentum the team had after spending three months together.

'It's an advantage in terms of the identity of the team but we still have to respect the opponent. Also, we're playing away and they [opponents] will be prepared for an Argentine team that drew attention after the victory against Australia.'

Argentina start their tour on 8 November with a match against Scotland at Murrayfield, before facing Italy the following week. They close out their tour with a Test against France, where they've enjoyed successful results in recent times.

Argentina – Matías Alemanno, Marcos Ayerza, Rodrigo Báez, Matías Cortese, Agustin Creevy, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Juan Cruz Guillemain, Ramiro Herrera, Santiago Iglesias Vazquez, Tomás Lavanini, Juan Manuel Leguizamón, Benjamín Macome, Lucas Noguera Paz, Guido Petti, Leonardo Senatore, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Horacio Agulla, Marcelo Bosch, Santiago Cordero, Tomas Cubelli, Jerónimo de la Fuente, Lucas González Amorosino, Santiago González Iglesias, Juan Martín Hernández, Juan Imhoff, Martín Landajo, Manuel Montero, Matias Moroni, Nicolás Sánchez, Joaquín Tuculet.

Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images