Gatland has no fear of physical Pumas’ pack
Gatland’s forwards go head to head with the Pumas in Cardiff on Saturday and the New Zealander has no concerns about his players coping with the physical threat posed by a much-acclaimed Argentina pack.
“We are not going to put (Argentina’s) scrum on a pedestal. “It is not a big issue for us.”
Gatland has made six changes from the team that edged past Samoa 17-13 for the third of Wales’ autumn Tests. As expected, 21-year-old Scarlets centre Jonathan Davies has secured a place in midfield alongside Jamie Roberts, replacing nose injury victim Tom Shanklin.
Roberts moves to outside centre to accommodate Davies, while there are recalls for a quartet of 2009 Lions, with wing Shane Williams, fly-half Stephen Jones, hooker Matthew Rees and flanker Martyn Williams all featuring after being rested against Samoa.
The one slight surprise sees scrum-half Gareth Cooper preferred to Dwayne Peel. Cooper started against New Zealand earlier this month, but Peel was among Wales’ best players during an often laboured Samoa win.
Davies for Shanklin is the only switch from the side beaten by New Zealand 10 days ago.
Elsewhere Andy Robinson has named an unchanged Scotland side to face Australia in this weekend’s second autumn international at Murrayfield. Head coach Robinson has kept faith with the starting XV and substitutes who secured victory against Fiji.
Number eight Johnnie Beattie and co-captain Mike Blair missed training yesterday with respective groin and ankle injuries but both have been included in the squad to play the Wallabies.
France coach Marc Lievremont has made 12 changes to the line-up that beat South Africa for Saturday’s match against Samoa, with wing Benjamin Fall and flanker Alexandre Lapandry handed first caps.
Lievremont has rung the changes for the Samoa game ahead of the clash with New Zealand on Saturday week.
Veteran prop Sylvain Marconnet replaces Thierry Dusautoir as captain.
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