Argentina head coach Michael Cheika has named his matchday 23 to face Japan in Nantes on Sunday, with Santiago Carreras (pictured) returning at fly-half in place of Nicolas Sanchez and prop Francisco Gómez Kodela making his first start since the opening-game defeat against England.
1 Thomas Gallo
2 Julian Montoya (c)
3 Francisco Gómez Kodela
4 Guido Petti Pagadizabal
5 Tomas Lavanini
6 Pablo Matera
7 Marcos Kremer
8 Juan Martin Gonzalez
9 Gonzalo Bertranou
10 Santiago Carreras
11 Mateo Carreras
12 Santiago Chocobares
13 Lucio Cinti
14 Emiliano Boffelli
15 Juan Cruz Mallia
Replacements:
16 Agustín Creevy
17 Joel Sclavi
18 Eduardo Bello
19 Matias Alemanno
20 Pedro Rubiolo
21 Lautaro Bazan Velez
22 Nicolas Sanchez
23 Matías Moroni
• Head coach Michael Cheika has made 11 changes to his starting XV from the team who defeated Chile 59-5 last week, with only Guido Petti, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Lucio Cinti retaining their places.
• Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez are the only two Los Pumas players to have started every match at RWC 2023.
• Francisco Gómez Kodela starts for the first time since their opening match against England in Marseille.
• Guido Petti and Tomas Lavanini reunite in the second-row for the first time since September 2022, and for the 32nd time in their career.
• The top three, and five of Los Pumas top six most capped players of all-time are named in this match-day squad- Agustin Creevy (104), Nicolas Sanchez (100), Pablo Matera (97), Julian Montoya (91) and Matias Alemanno (90).
• Guido Petti has been their main target at lineout time, winning a competition-high 21 on their own throw. He will be jumping against Japanese lock Jack Cornelsen who has made the joint-most lineout steals (5) of any player at RWC 2023.
• Captain Julian Montoya has the third-highest success-rate of any hooker at RWC 2023, winning 93% on this throw.
