IRELAND V ARGENTINA NEWS:ARGENTINA SHOW three changes from the side that lost 15-9 to France in Montpellier for Sunday's clash with Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. Pumas' coach Santiago Phelan was originally scheduled to announce his team tomorrow but instead brought it forward.

Wing Horacio Agulla, a try scorer against Ireland in the 2007 World Cup pool match at Parc des Princes, gives the back three a distinctly Leicester Tigers flavour as he joins Welford Road club-mate Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino and Stade Francais fullback Martin Rodriguez in the back three. Agulla missed the two games so far on the Northern Hemisphere tour but has been promoted in place of Gonzalo Camacho.

There is a further alteration behind the scrum with Marcelo Bosch (Biarritz) preferred at inside centre to Montpellier’s Santiago Fernandez.

The final change is in the backrow where Julio Farias Cabello, who came off the bench to make his debut in replacing Miguel de Achaval at openside flanker during the French match, impressed sufficiently to start on Sunday. The experienced Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and one of two Argentina based players in Genaro Fessia complete the breakaway trio.

Wing Lucas Borges (Albi), another member of Argentina’s 2007 World Cup squad, comes onto the bench with prop Juan Figallo (Montpellier). The Pumas beat Italy 22-16 in Verona before being edged out by France (15-9). This will be the South American team’s sixth match in 2010 and as things stand they have lost three, including twice to Scotland at home during the summer.

There are plenty of familiar faces in the Argentine pack especially the frontrow of Rodrigo Roncero, Mario Ledesma and Martin Scelzo who between them contribute 170 of the 260 caps in the visiting eight. Toulouse lock Patricio Albacete enjoyed a quicker than anticipated recovery from an injury that was thought would keep him out of the tour: he played against France.

He is partnered in the secondrow by Leinster’s Mariano Galarza, who has played four times for the Irish province, one more than the number of caps he has for his country. The 6ft 7in secondrow hasn’t enjoyed too many opportunities with Leinster, a fact confirmed in a light-hearted way by Irish number eight Jamie Heaslip.

When asked to talk about Galarza, Heaslip smiled: “I’m learning a bit of Spanish off him every day. So far I’ve got Hola and que tal (how are you), and bien. That’s as far as I’ve gone with my Spanish. He gets around and we’ve used him in the lineout a good bit. He can definitely work. He hasn’t played that much for Leinster but from what I’ve seen he’s a workhorse all right and he’s pretty athletic.”

The team will be led by former Leinster star Felipe Contepomi with the backline comprising of players drawn from clubs in France and England. Centre Gonzalo Tiesi, once of London Irish and Harlequins but now playing with the Michael Cheika coached Stade Francais admitted: “Against Italy we won but on the pitch we saw an Argentine team that did not dominate much and played little with the ball: against France we lost but played better rugby.

“These are the differences that stand out, one for having won, which is the main objective, but looking to the long term we want to continue improving our game. Maybe today Ireland are a small step above us but we are confident we can have a good match.”

The latter reference is because the defeat to France saw the Pumas drop to eighth in the world rankings, one place behind Ireland.

The home side trained yesterday with the expectation that all the walking wounded should be available for selection.

ARGENTINA XV

(v Ireland, Aviva Stadium, Sunday, 2.30pm)

15 Martin Rodriguez (Stade Francais)

14 Horacio Agulla (Leicester)

13 Gonzalo Tiesi (Stade Francais)

12 Marcelo Bosch (Biarritz)

11 L Gonzalez Amorosino (Leicester)

10 Felipe Contepomi (Toulon, capt),

9 Nicolas Vergallo (Toulouse)

1 Rodrigo Roncero (Stade Francais)

2 Mario Ledesma (Clermont)

3 Martin Scelzo (Clermont)

4 Mariano Galarza (Leinster)

5 Patricio Albacete (Toulouse)

6 Genaro Fessia (Cordoba)

7 Julio Farias Cabello (Tucuman)

8 Juan Fernandez Lobbe (Toulon)

Replacements:A Creevy, M Ayerza, J Figallo, S Guzman, A Galindo, A Lalanne, L Borges.