The Albany Gazette - Veteran Moroni in as Argentina's Cheika makes three changes

The 32-year-old, who is the only Pumas player to play in all six of their Tests this year, comes in at outside centre in place of Lucio Cinti, who drops to the bench compared to the team that lost 27-10 to 14-man England in their opener.

"Matias Moroni, since we arrived in Portugal (for a pre-tournament training camp) has always been in very good shape in training," said Cheika.

"This game is good for him, he is very strong in defence, what we need for a number 13 and Lucio (Cinti) is a substitute to finish the game."

Eduardo Bello replaces Francisco Gomez Kodela at tighthead prop and Guido Petti comes into the second row as the injured Tomas Lavanini misses out on the matchday 23 for Friday's Pool D clash in Saint Etienne.

Gomez Kodela is on the bench where prop Mayco Vivas was preferred to Joel Sclavi, but Cheika returned to a conventional forwards-backs split of five-three after picking six forwards on his bench against England.

Veteran fly-half Nicolas Sanchez and scrum-half Tomas Cubelli are on the bench but half-back Lautaro Bazan Velez misses out.

"With Agustin Creevy, Nicolas Sanchez and Tomas Cubelli we have a lot of experience as finishers," said Cheika.

"It will be a different type of game this week and we return to the combination of five (forwards) and three (backs) on the bench as we usually have."

Team (15-1)

Juan Cruz Mallia; Emiliano Boffelli, Matias Moroni, Santiago Chocobares, Mateo Carreras; Santiago Carreras, Gonzalo Bertranou; Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer, Pablo Matera; Matias Alemanno, Guido Petti; Eduardo Bello, Julian Montoya (capt), Thomas Gallo

Replacements: Agustin Creevy, Mayco Vivas, Francisco Gomez Kodela, Pedro Rubiolo, Rodrigo Bruni, Tomas Cubelli, Nicolas Sanchez, Lucio Cinti

Coach: Michael Cheika (AUS)

(K.Müller--BBZ)