Wales coach Warren Gatland is confident in his pack © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

Preview: Wales and Pumas eye World Cup boost

Head to Head: History favours Wales over Pumas

Verdict: Gatland's Wales still muddled

Match Pack: Wales pull off comfortable victory

News: Fullback Hook just happy to be playing

News: Howley targets balanced Welsh display

Preview: Frustrated Wales eye Pumas' scalp

Teams: Gatland and Phelan tinker with sides

News: Pumas draft in Figuerola and Sambucetti

News: Wales wing Williams tired of kick-fests

Head to Head: Wales look to build winning streak

Features: Warburton's arrival boosts Wales

Reaction: Gatland slams poor finishing

Match Pack: Nervous Wales hang on for victory

Verdict: Wales only serve to frustrate

Players/Officials: Warren Gatland

Tournaments/Tours: Argentina tour

Teams: Samoa | Wales

Wales coach Warren Gatland is confident that his side will not be out-muscled by a heavyweight Argentina pack at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

Gethin Jenkins and Paul James were under surprise pressure at times in Wales' narrow win over Samoa last Friday. Much has been made of the fearsome Pumas' front-row but Gatland has belief in his forwards.

"We need to back ourselves at the scrum," said Gatland. "We are not going to put (Argentina's) scrum on a pedestal. We've got to make sure we switch on - it is not a big issue for us. They are not the greatest scrummaging threat [in the world]. We've looked at tapes of the past.

"I've spoken to Graham Rowntree (England scrummaging coach), who said they thought the Australian scrum was significantly stronger than the Argentine one. Argentina are a dogged side. They are tough and physical, but they don't play a huge amount of rugby, which is what we saw a couple of years ago in the World Cup.

"We are expecting them to kick a lot more than they did against England last Saturday. They are a tough side to beat and to put away, and we are expecting that tough, physical encounter against them. We've got to be smart in terms of the way we play. We perhaps need to up our tempo and intensity from what we had last week (against Samoa)."

Wales have struggled to finish opportunities in recent matches and are in the midst of a rare try drought. Again, though, Gatland is sure that his side can find the right response this weekend.

"We are trying to play some rugby," he said. "We missed a lot of opportunities against Samoa. If we had taken a couple of those, two or three maybe, and didn't give away the intercept try, then the score is 30-odd to six.

"We've been a little bit critical of the fact we didn't take those chances, but the positives were we did create them. When England went out there and played a little bit of rugby (last Saturday), I thought it stressed Argentina."