Wednesday 15 July 2015

All Blacks rotate for McCaw and Carter's swansong

Round one of the Rugby Championship kicks off this weekend with some exciting match-ups to start the build up to the World Cup later this year. First up is New Zealand v Argentina on Friday morning.

The New Zealand side has a hint of experimentation about it along with the usual suspects, with both Carter and McCaw making their final appearances in front of their home crowd.

TJ Perenara gets a rare start at scrum-half in the absence of Aaron Smith, with both scrum-halves in searingly good form the battle for the number 9 shirt will be very interesting.

Super Rugby's top try scorer Naholo comes in for his test debut on the right wing, adding further potency to a very dangerous backline.

Ma'a Nonu moves to second centre outside of Sonny Bill Williams while Dagg will have a chance to prove himself from Fullback.

Argentina are fielding a side with serious potential, combining young raw talent with the old experienced heads in the pack.

Lobbe, Leguizamon, Ayerza and captain Creevy lead the experienced pack with Isa and Petti both making their Rugby Championship debuts at Number eight and lock respectively.

Montero's cruel world cup ending knee injury sees Cordero get his chance on the wing. Expect a performance from this Argentina side. Aguila, Bosch and Sanchez are key to this teams success and a big performance from each of these players will see them push New Zealand close.

Expect a closely run affair with the Argentina forwards contesting well, but with New Zealand adding on points in the last twenty.

Prediction: New Zealand 37 Argentina 24

The match is live on Sky Sports at 08:35(GMT) on Friday morning.

Argentina:

15 Joaquin Tuculet
14 Horacio Aguila
13 Marcelo Bosch
12 Jeronimo De la Fuente
11 Santiago Cordero

10 Nicolas Sanchez
9 Tomas Cubelli

8 Facundo Isa
7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe
6 Juan Manuel Lequizamon
5 Guido Petti
4 Manuel Carizza
3 Ramiro Herrera
2 Agustin Creevy(c)
1 Marco Ayerza

16 Julian Montoya
17 Lucas Noguera
18 Nahuel Chaparro Tetaz
19 Benjamin Macome
20 Javier Ortega Desio
21 Martin Landajo
22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias
23 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino


New Zealand:

15 Israel Dagg
14 Waisake Naholo*
13 Ma'a Nonu
12 Sonny Bill Williams
11 Charles Piutau

10 Dan Carter
9 Tj Perenara

8 Kieran Read
7 Richie McCaw(c)
6 Jerome Kaino
5 Brodie Retallick
4 Luke Romano
3 Owen Franks
2 Keven Mealamu
1 Tony Woodcock

16 Codie Taylor*
17 Wyatt Crockett
18 Nepo Laulala
19 Jeremy Thrush
20 Liam Messam
21 Andy Ellis
22 Colin Slade
23 Ryan Crotty

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