Only the halfback pairing of Martin Landajo of local club CASI and number 10 Nicolas Sanchez of Begles-Bordeaux, a fine place kicker, have had significant experience at the highest level.
They played together for Argentina in several matches of The Rugby Championship, the southern hemisphere’s top competition which is coming up in the second half of the year before the 2015 World Cup in England.
The bulk of the team to face Ireland were in the second string Pampas who won the 2014 Pacific Rugby Cup in Argentina’s first participation in Australia earlier this year and are almost all based in Argentina.
The exceptions include lock Manuel Carizza, who plays for Stormers in South Africa, and prop Matias Diaz of Highlanders in New Zealand.
Many of them cut their teeth in the lost home series against England a year ago.
Utility back Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, who has 2011 World Cup experience behind him and with 30 caps is the second most experienced player in the squad after Carizza, is a free agent having returned home from Europe where he played for Leicester Tigers, Montpellier and Oyonnax.
In the side that coach Daniel Hourcade named for the first test, Castres prop Ramiro Herrera will be making his Pumas debut.
Hourcade is reserving Argentina’s elite overseas-based players, including captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe of Toulon and Saracens centre Marcelo Bosch, for the Rugby Championship.
While Argentina’s plan is to gradually have more and more of their top players at home or in the southern hemisphere with a Super Rugby franchise coming up in 2016, Hourcade’s more immediate goal is to build a team for the World Cup.
Argentina and Ireland have met 18 times with 10 wins for the Irish, seven for the Pumas and one draw.
Their last clash in Argentina was in 2007 when the Pumas won 16-0, their biggest winning margin. Ireland won their last test 46-24 in Dublin in 2012.
The second test is scheduled for June 14 in Tucuman and they also play Scotland in a one off test in Cordoba on June 20.
Team: 15-Joaquin Tuculet, 14-Santiago Cordero, 13-Jeronimo de la Fuente, 12-Gabriel Ascarate, 11-Manuel Montero, 10-Nicolas Sanchez, 9-Martin Landajo (captain); 8-Benjamin Macome, 7-Tomas de la Vega, 6-Rodrigo Baez, 5-Tomas Lavanini, 4-Manuel Carizza, 3-Ramiro Herrera, 2-Matias Cortese, 1-Lucas Noguera Paz.
Replacements: 16-Julian Montoya, 17-Bruno Postiglioni, 18-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 19-Matias Alemanno, 20-Javier Ortega Desio, 21-Tomas Cubelli, 22-Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23-Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino.
(Reporting by Rex Gowar; Editing by Alan Baldwin)
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