The giant task awaiting the Pumas ahead of the Tri-Nations was laid bare by coach Mario Ledesma on Tuesday, with Argentina’s squad still not yet fully assembled just weeks out from their first Test of the year. Argentina vs All Blacks live Rugby
While the world champion Springboks pulled out of the The Rugby Championship last week because they felt they were putting their players at risk by playing given a lack of match practice, the Pumas are coming into the tournament with a quarter of what their southern hemisphere competitors would have had under their belts.
Hitherto, the Pumas have been able to train behind closed doors at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney's inner-west since touching down in Australia earlier in the month.
But after a month of quarantine – first in Montevideo in Uruguay – the majority of the Pumas squad is at last able to roam freely.
It makes Saturday’s opposed training session against a Waratahs XV - which won’t be open to the public in Sydney – all the more important.
"Friendly matches are so important for us,” Ledesma, the former Wallabies scrum coach, said. Abs v pumas live stream
“From the team, the one who played most games did so in seven games in 2020. So, having the opportunity of playing at least three games before the debut against New Zealand, seems not too much but for us it is essential. South Africa was talking about having 400 minutes per player, we will be around 100.”
South Africa’s decision to withdraw at the last minute went down like a lead balloon across the respective SANZAAR Unions.
But the one saving grace for Argentina is that it will give them an extra week to prepare, with the Pumas to play their first of four consecutive Tests on November 14.
"South Africa's withdrawal is not good news because we were prepared to play six games and now there will be four,” Ledesma said.
“But the truth is that the players that come from Europe will not be allowed to leave their quarantine until Wednesday, November 4, and that will have been three days before the match against South Africa, and that was going to be tough in terms of setting up the squad against the Springboks.” ARG v NZ Rugby stream
