Wallabies pursue three in a row against wounded Pumas

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has urged his team to stay focused as they eye three wins in a row for the first time since 2017 against a wounded Argentina on Saturday.

Australia head into the Rugby Championship fifth-round clash with momentum and confidence after consecutive victories over South Africa, propelling them to number three in the world.

In contrast, Los Pumas and coach Mario Ledesma are under mounting pressure after four straight defeats, scoring just two tries while conceding 136 points.

Despite this Rennie remains cautious of a team battling to bounce back, and conscious that Argentina frustrated his side by grinding out two draws last season.

“We know the Argentinians will be desperate because they have had four losses so far and they’re a good side,” he said Thursday ahead of the clash in Townsville, in northern Queensland, the second game of a double-header with New Zealand facing South Africa in the early match.

“They’ll want to express themselves, they throw more passes (than South Africa), they counter when given the opportunity and they are very good at it.

“They’re also very good at filling the field, are disciplined around defence and can be hard to break down.”

“What we’ve learned over the past few weeks is we have to hang in the fight for a long time, sometimes it takes 60 or 70 minutes to crack a side,” he added.

“We’re certainly in no position to sit back and relax and be happy. We’re still a long way from the team we reckon we could be.”

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Rennie has made two changes to his starting side, handing flanker Rob Leota a run-on debut in a backrow marshalled by skipper Michael Hooper and Rob Valetini.

The versatile Reece Hodge got the nod to replace fullback Tom Banks, who is out for up to 10 weeks with a fractured arm.

A fit-again James O’Connor was included on the bench and will see his first action since May, when a groin injury sidelined him after he had made the fly-half role his own.

That position has now been taken by veteran Quade Cooper, who made a remarkable comeback earlier this month after four years in the international wilderness.

While Argentina managed to bank two draws against the Wallabies last year, they have not scored more than 13 points in any Rugby Championship game this season and Ledesma admitted Rennie’s team was “a different beast” to 2020.

“They’ve beaten the world champions twice and I thought they really dominated the game (last weekend),” said Ledesma, who has former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika assisting him.

“We’re playing a different beast than last year.

“We have had a couple of bad games on the hop,” he added. “We’re really concentrating on getting better and we’re playing against a team that is really confident.”

Ledesma named an unchanged run-on side to the one that crashed to a second-string New Zealand last week, with Santiago Carreras retained at fly-half with first-choice number 10 Nicolas Sanchez still out injured.

Australia

Reece Hodge, Andrew Kellaway, Len Ikitau, Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete, Quade Cooper, Nic White; Rob Valetini, Michael Hooper (capt), Rob Leota, Matt Philip, Izack Rodda, Taniela Tupou, Folau Fainga’a, James Slipper

Bench: Feleti Kaitu’u, Angus Bell, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain, Pete Samu, Tate McDermott, James O’Connor, Jordan Petaia

Argentina

Juan Cruz Mallia, Santiago Cordero, Lucio Cinti, Santiago Chocobares, Emiliano Boffelli, Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou, Pablo Matera, Marcos Kremer, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tomas Lavanini, Matias Alemanno; Santiago Medrano, Julian Montoya (capt), Facundo Gigena

Bench: Santiago Socino, Rodrigo Martinez, Enrique Pieretto, Guido Petti, Joaquin Oviedo, Gonzalo Garcia, Domingo Miotti, Mateo Carreras