Argentina v Scotland: Teams

Argentina welcome back key players Felipe Contepomi and Juan Manuel Leguizamon for the first Test against Scotland.

Contepomi captains the side on his return to action after missing the whole of 2009 with a serious knee injury, and has issued a rallying cry to his players.

"We want to be more ambitious, we have first-class players," he said. "We have to encourage ourselves to play more with the ball.

"The national team have that attitude and we showed a little bit of that in November. We must insist in that aspect.

"The time of testing players and brining the group together is over. It is time to consolidate as a team and insist in what we want to do."

Pumas coach Santiago Phelan wants his side to make the most of their upcoming matches as they look to consolidate ahead of next year's World Cup.

Cohesion

"We are focusing on these matches very seriously," he said. "The main objective in these games is to allow a base of players to gain playing time, as we will have very few opportunities and we need to create cohesion on the pitch.

"Obviously, training for a long time helps us get in better shape, but we'll get to this match in good form anyway."

The teams will meet each other in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. And while the Scotland players claim that the upcoming Tests will have no significance, with the tournament still so far away, Phelan disagrees.

"Playing such top-class opposition is great, moreover we are rivals in the next World Cup," he said.

"The positive thing is that we can prepare ourselves and see how demanding playing these type of teams will be.

"After that, we can also obviously study some stuff of our rivals ahead of the World Cup."

Scotland coach Andy Robinson makes only two enforced changes from the side that beat Ireland in the final Six Nations match in March.

Captain and scrum-half Chris Cusiter has failed to recover from a knee injury so Rory Lawson takes over at number nine, while Alastair Kellock takes over the armband.

Prop Euan Murray is the second injury absentee with Moray Low coming into the starting line-up at tighthead.

It will only be Lawson's second start as he wins his 19th cap, his first start having occurred against France in Paris three years ago.

However, the 29-year-old has consistently won plaudits from Robinson - most notably for the major part he played in steering Scotland home to a win against the Wallabies at Murrayfield last November - and is determined to seize his chance.

Performance

"Rory has performed well for Gloucester at the end of the season," Robinson said.

"You have to view this on merit. I think we have three outstanding scrum-halves and I believe it's right to pick Rory. Mike (Blair) is a quality performer.

"He will still have an influence on the game at the weekend."

In last November's match against Australia, Kellock took over the captaincy just as Lawson assumed responsibility at scrum-half, so, fittingly, Kellock leads the Scotland team for the first time from the outset on Saturday.

"I expect Al to lead from the front as he has done with his performances this year for Scotland," declared Robinson.

Kellock skippered Glasgow Warriors to the inaugural Magners League play-offs this season and becomes Scotland's 110th Test match captain.

"It's like opposition teams coming to Firhill - they must feel the same," Kellock said.

While 13 of the starting XV against Ireland will take to the field in Tucuman, there are only three survivors on the bench - Scott Lawson and the Edinburgh half-backs Phil Godman and, Scotland's most-capped scrum-half of all time, Mike Blair.

Introduced to the match-day 22 are Edinburgh forwards Geoff Cross and Scott MacLeod - the latter last played a cap Test match for Scotland on the corresponding visit to Argentina two years ago - Gloucester's blindside flanker Alasdair Strokosch; and, the only uncapped member of the squad, Edinburgh's resourceful back, Jim Thompson.

Argentina: 15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Lucas Borges, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 Felipe Contepomi (c), 9 Alfredo Lalanne, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Genaro Fessia, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Martin Scelzo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Marcos Ayerza, 18 Mariano Galarza, 19 Alejandro Campos, 20 Agustin Figuerola, 21 Ignacio Mieres, 22 Lucas Gonzalez-Amorosino.

Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Max Evans, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 John Barclay, 7 Johnnie Beattie, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Alastair Kellock (c), 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Moray Low, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Geoff Cross, 18 Scott MacLeod, 19 Alasdair Strokosch, 20 Mike Blair, 21 Phil Godman, 22 Jim Thompson.