Pumas are confident of toppling the English

ARGENTINA believe familiarity will help them topple new-look England in their two-match Test series which starts in San Juan later today.

All 15 starters, as well as the entire replacements’ bench, named by Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade play together for the Jaguares in the Super Rugby southern hemisphere club competition.

While they have won just nine of their 27 matches so far, they argue that continuity could be invaluable as they set their sights on a fifth victory over England.

“It is an advantage to play together all year and we hope to use it,” said fly-half Nicolas Sanchez, who played for Bordeaux and Toulon before joining the Jaguares on their formation in 2015.

Scrum-half Martin Landajo says the Jaguares’ current struggles will stand them in good stead for the future and argues that playing against the cream of the crop in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia has helped them broaden their playing style.

“It is good for us to play at a high level every weekend as we were not used to it,” Landajo said. “At the start, we weren’t comfortable as it was different playing every weekend at the highest level.

“We used to play just 12 matches for the Pumas and that was it, now there are a lot more.

“We have struggled a bit, but in the future it will help us.

“The best part of Super Rugby and playing in the southern hemisphere is we like to attack, so it is good for us to be in a tournament where it is much easier to do that.”

The Pumas are very confident of making it three wins out of three at Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario, where they have already defeated Italy and Georgia.

SCOTLAND are ready for surprises when they take on Italy in the humidity of Singapore on Saturday, according to forwards coach Dan McFarland.

The oppressive climate is likely to pose almost as great a problem as the opposition themselves, but McFarland says it is a challenge his team will relish.

“You want to put yourself under pressure, you want to do something different,” he said.

“In the same way that guys who like to climb mountains don’t just want to climb Ben Nevis every day, they are going to test themselves on something else, something more difficult; they don’t whinge when Mount Everest is put in front of them.

“The bigger the challenge, the bigger the story afterwards.”