Tuesday 7 August 2018 11:55, UK
New Argentina head coach Mario Ledesma has included six uncapped players in his first squad ahead of the forthcoming Rugby Championship.
The squad of 36 are currently training in Buenos Aires and will start their campaign with back-to-back fixtures against Rassie Erasmus' South Africa.
A meeting with the Springboks in Durban on August 18 will be followed by the return encounter in Mendoza, seven days later. Both fixtures will be live on Sky Sports Action.
All six of the uncapped players are forwards. A front-row quartet of Marco Ciccioli, Diego Fortuny, Lucas Favre and Mayco Vivas are joined by lock Franco Molina and loose forward Santiago Grondona.
Ledesma was unveiled as the replacement for Daniel Hourcade at the start of the month after the latter resigned in June. Hourcade guided the Pumas to the 2015 Rugby World Cup semi-finals, but since then they have won only six Tests and lost 22.
In contrast, the national side's new head coach recently led the Jaguares into Super Rugby's quarter-finals for the first time in their history. He also played for Argentina in four World Cups between 1999 and 2011.
At the time of Ledesma's appointment, he confirmed that highly-experienced hooker Agustín Creevy will remain as captain during the Rugby Championship.
Argentina squad:
Forwards - Matías Alemanno, Rodrigo Bruni, Marco Ciccioli, Agustín Creevy, Lucas Favre, Diego Fortuny, Santiago Garcia Botta, Santiago Grondona, Marcos Kremer, Ignacio Larrague, Tomas Lavanini, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Pablo Matera, Vivas Mayco, Santiago Medrano, Franco Molina, Julian Montoya, Javier Ortega Desio, Guido Petti, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Juan Zeiss.
Backs - Gonzalo Bertranou, Emiliano Boffelli, Sebastian Cancelliere, Tomas Cubelli, Jeronimo de la Fuente, Bautista Delguy, Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, Bautista Ezcurra, Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, Martin Landajo, Juan Cruz Mallia, Matias Moroni, Ramiro Moyano, Matias Orlando, Nicolas Sanchez.
