The Rugby Championship
Pumas squad announced for opener
ESPN Staff
August 8, 2012
Argentina fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez is wrapped up, Argentina v Stade Francais, Estadio Jose Amalfitani, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 4, 2012
Juan Martin Hernandez has been included in the 26-man squad © Getty Images
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Tournaments/Tours: Rugby Championship
Teams: Argentina

Argentina coach Santiago Phelan has revealed the 26-man squad that will travel to South Africa for their historic Rugby Championship debut Test on August 18.

This year sees the Tri-Nations expanded to four teams with the Pumas taking their inaugural bow in the tournament. And Phelan has named a squad brimming with players turning out in the Aviva Premiership with the likes of Bath's Horacio Agulla, Leicester's Marcos Ayerza and Exeter's Gonzalo Camacho all included.

The squad will travel to Santa Fe to take on Stade Francais on Friday before then travelling to Cape Town for their match against the Boks. Tigers prop Ayerza has called on his side to improve on their performance against Stade after they were downed 25-21 by the Top 14 Orange side last weekend. Ayerza said: "We know we have to improve from last weekend but we will also learn a lot from our debut in the Rugby Championship.

"I think we lacked maturity as a team to know how to handle the anxiety and also we need to learn not to commit penalties at key moments but we are working hard to correct this and eventually I'm sure we will succeed. Friday will be a new measure of how far we've come. We have 80 minutes to make amends and try and reverse where we failed last week. If we put in a good performance then it will give us more confidence."

Argentina squad:

Horacio Agulla (Bath Rugby), Patricio Albacete (Toulouse), Marcos Ayerza (Leicester Tigers), Marcelo Bosch (Biarritz), Martín Bustos Moyano (Montpellier), Gonzalo Camacho (Exeter Chiefs), Manuel Carizza (Biarritz), Agustín Creevy (Montpellier), Julio Farías (Tucuman Rugby), Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe (Toulon), Santiago Fernández (Montpellier), Juan Figallo (Montpellier), Alvaro Galindo (Racing Métro), Lucas González Amorosino (Montpellier), Eusebio Guiñazú (Biarritz), Juan Martín Hernández (Racing Metro), Juan Imhoff (Racing Metro), Martín Landajo (Los Pampas XV), Tomás Leonardi (Los Pampas XV), Juan Pablo Orlandi (Racing Metro), Martín Rodríguez (Stade Francais), Rodrigo Roncero (Stade Francais), Federico Nicolás Sánchez (Bordeaux Begles), Leonardo Senatore (Los Pampas XV), Tomás Vallejos Cinalli (Scarlets), Nicolás Vergallo (Stade Francais)

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