The Boks convincingly beat Los Pumas 32-12 in the first of their back-to-back matches last weekend and coach Jacques Nienaber and his men will be aiming for another morale boosting victory considering that they still matches against Australia and New Zealand awaits them.
On the other hand, Argentina coach Mario Ledesma and his men will be looking for their first win as another defeat will serious hurt their chances of making an impression in this tournament as they also still have to play against Australia and New Zealand.
Both coaches have made considerable chances to their respective match day squads with South Africa’s Nienaber recalling heavy hitters who featured in the 2-1 series win over the British and Irish Lions while Ledesma continued to rotate.
Argentina VS Springboks
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has once again made wholesale changes to the team for the second Rugby Championship Test match against Argentina where Lood de Jager will run out for his 50th cap at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.
In other team news, Marvin Orie will earn his first Test start and the uncapped Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg has been named on the replacements bench.
The starting team shows eleven changes from last week, with six in the backline and five upfrontm as Nienaber brought back a number of players who featured in the recent series win over the British and Irish Lions.
In total, the match-23 shows 17 changes from the squad that beat the Pumas 32-12 in the opening match last Saturday and the only players who will start again this weekend are Lood de Jager, captain Siya Kolisi, Jasper Wiese and Cobus Reinach.
Reinach will start in the same backline that secured the win in the final Test against the British and Irish Lions which sees Handré Pollard back at flyhalf, Damian de Allende and Lukhanyo Am returning to the midfield.
Also returning are wingers Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe and fullback Willie le Roux in the back three.
Orie, who has made all five of his Test appearances off the bench, as well as Malcolm Marx and Trevor Nyakane have been promoted to the starting team where Thomas du Toit will also start his first Test of the season.
The only change in the loose trio is at flank where Franco Mostert steps in for Kwagga Smith who has moved to the bench in place of the injured Marco van Staden.
The bench, which features a six-two split of forwards yet again, also has a new look to it with Janse van Rensburg joined by Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe who were given a break last weekend.
The two backs on the bench are scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, who scored a try on debut last weekend, and Damian Willemse.
For Los Pumas, coach Mario Ledesma has decided to rotate his squad and only the midfield pairing, front row and two of the three loose forwards are in their same positions from last Saturday while there are two positional switches.
Apart from the two midfielders, Santiago Chocobares and Jeronimo de la Fuente, the entire backline is different from last weekend with Santiago Carreras moving from fullback to left wing while Bautista Delguy, injured Matias Moroni, Nicolas Sanchez and Felipe Ezcurra drop out of the starting team.
They are replaced by Juan Cruz Mallía at fullback, the uncapped Ignacio Mendy at right wing, Domingo Miotti at flyhalf and Gonzalo Bertranou at scrumhalf while Sanchez and Ezcurra are on the bench this week.
Upfront, Facundo Isa drops out of the match-day squad while Marcos Kremer moves to the bench, Guido Petti moves from lock to flanker with Tomas Lavanini and Matias Alemanno named to start in the engine room.
Last week’s front row of Francisco Gomez Kodela, Pumas captain Julian Montoya and Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, as well as Rodrigo Bruni and Pablo Matera retain their places in the starting team.
Apart from Mendy, one other uncapped player has been included on the bench in outside back Lucio Cinti and both these speedsters were part of the Argentinean sevens team at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo where they beat the Blitzboks in the quarter-finals and ended up winning the bronze medal.
Pick: Springboks Wins by 0.20 at BetXChange
