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Wales Aim To Tame The Pumas

Wales Aim To Tame The Pumas

Wales boss Mike Ruddock takes his young charges into the heat of the Argentinean battlefield this weekend, insisting his side has what it takes to win and emulate the class of 1999.

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Wales became the first British side to whitewash the Pumas on their own patch when Graham Henry’s side won the traditionally tough test series five years ago.

And now Ruddock will be looking to repeat that performance by physically dominating the team currently ranked seventh in the World, one place above Wales.

“We don’t want to be intimidated by the Argentina team. We want to be physical with them and stop them in the areas we feel they will be looking to dominate,” said the new Wales coach.

Wales’ last visit to the South American country saw the Dragons return with a hard-fought 2-0 series win under their belt. The first test saw Henry’s men rally from 23-0 down at half-time to storm to a 36-26 victory thanks to tries from Chris Wyatt, Dafydd James and Brett Sinkinson plus the ever-reliable boot of Neil Jenkins.

The Dragons were made to work just as hard for the next clash with hooker Garin Jenkins wrapping up a great tour with a try in the corner, Jenkins grabbing the rest of the points in a 23-16 victory.

Just three players have survived from that trip, including lock Gareth Llewellyn who will make history as Wales’ most capped player come Saturday kick-off following Ruddock’s decision to stick with the same XV that hammered the Barbarians 42-0 last month.

And although his hand may have had his hand forced with injuries to the likes of Gareth Thomas, Stephen Jones, Robin McBryde and Martyn Williams, Ruddock views this tour as a chance for the next generation to shine.

“We’ve got a lot of players unavailable to us, but I’m very happy with the squad with the squad we’ve got,” he said. “When I sat down and planned the squad for the Test matches against Argentina, I had an idea of the sort of line-up I’d like to put out for the first Test.

“I wanted to try that line-up in the Baa-Baas game and all the indicators from that game were pretty good.

“They did well in both attack and defence, so on that basis I didn’t see any reason to go for away from the plan.”

Wales team
R Williams (Cardiff Blues); H Luscombe (Dragons), S Parker (unattached), G Henson (Ospreys), S Williams (Ospreys); C Sweeney (Dragons), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets); D Jones (Ospreys), M Davies (unattached), A Jones (Ospreys), G Llewellyn (unattached), B Cockbain (Ospreys), C Charvis (capt, Newcastle), J Forster (Dragons), M Owen (Dragons). Replacements: H Bennett, G Jenkins, D Morris, J Thomas, M Phillips, N Robinson, T Shanklin.

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