Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi has allayed Connacht supporters’ fears over the fitness of their star winger Santiago Cordero after he was left out of the Pumas’ match-day squad for Friday night’s clash with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
Cordero, who is still working his way back to his best following a serious knee injury that ruined his first season in Galway, misses out on selection, but Contepomi confirmed that the 30-year-old is fully fit.
“No, he’s not injured, actually he’s in great form,” Contepomi said from Argentina’s team hotel in Dublin on Wednesday.
“Yes, there are a few changes but that’s because these guys compete really hard with each other throughout the week and we always try to field the best 23 that we think out of this group of 32 can represent us the best.
“In this case Santi didn’t make it. He had a great game (against Italy) last weekend and we know we can count on him and he’s really training really well, but we made other selections.
“It’s more tactical around strategy, Santi Carreras has come back and we think he can give us something from the bench.”
Confidence is high in the Pumas camp after they put 50 points, including seven tries, on Italy last weekend, which followed on from a positive Rugby Championship campaign, as Contepomi made an immediate impact having stepped up as head coach.
“Yeah, results gives you confidence, definitely, but it’s more, for us, the progress is trying to do, what we say we are going to do or trying to, what we train or what we train to do and then go and do it on match day,” the former Leinster out-half and coach added.
“That’s the tough thing in rugby or in any sport. So for us, the confidence comes in doing. We evaluate maybe differently to how people from the outside evaluate us. I know you go a lot on results, we go more on performance and we have certain things that we look at that it doesn’t matter about results.
“I give you a very simple example, we beat South Africa in Santiago but it came up to the last minute where (Manie) Libbok missed a penalty. What if he would have got that penalty?
“Would have that changed our way of evaluating ourselves? No, we don’t change the way we evaluate ourselves. Now from the outside, you change the evaluation because you say, oh you beat the double world champions, you know.
“For us it’s the same, how we evaluate. So we understand that, the way we evaluate, we know we are in progress because the things we say we are going to do, we are doing them more frequently than not on game day.”
Contepomi has made three changes to his side to face Ireland at the Aviva on Friday night.
Having missed last weekend’s big win over Italy, Pablo Matera returns from suspension to start in the back-row, as Juan Martin Gonzalez switches from blindside to openside to accommodate the return of the Pumas’ vice-captain.
Guido Petti is recalled to the second-row, while Matias Moroni is back at inside centre. There is no place in the match-day 23 for Cordero.
Thomas Gallo and Joel Sclavi continue either side of skipper Julian Montoya in the front-row, as Petti is paired with Pedro Rubiolo in the second-row.
The teak-tough Matera links up with Saracens’ outstanding talent Gonzalez and Joaquin Oviedo in the back-row.
Gonzalo Bertranou and Tomas Albornoz are again named as the starting half-backs, as Moroni partners Saracens’ Lucio Cinti in midfield.
Toulouse’s classy Juan Cruz Mallia is at full-back, as he forms a dangerous back-three with Bautista Delguy and Rodrigo Isgro.
Contepomi has gone with a conventional split of five forwards and three backs on the bench.
Ignacio Ruiz, Ignacio Calles and Francisco Gomez Kodela will provide front-row cover, while Franco Molina and Santiago Grondona will also offer extra ballast.
Gonzalo Garcia, Santiago Carreras and Justo Piccardo are the back-line replacements.